Lily Gladstone as Tana in The Unknown Country. Photo courtesy of Music Box Films.
The Unknown Country is a 2023 film directed by Morrisa Maltz that follows Tana, a young woman played by Lily Gladstone who embarks on a solo road trip towards the Texas/Mexico border. It was shot by Andrew Hajek, an East Dallas commercial filmmaker who previously worked with Maltz on her 2018 documentary, Ingrid. Hajek and his wife live in Lower Greenville, where some of the film was shot.
“We’d shoot little chunks at a time and then she would use that footage to raise more money so we could do it again,” Hajek explains. “So on and so forth for five years. And that’s how The Unknown Country was made.”
The Hollywood Reporter called the film “as epic as it is personal”, a testament to the individual odyssey Gladstone takes the audience on.
The coming-of-age film premiered at SXSW and is now hitting indie theaters across the country. You can see it at Angelika Film Center starting tonight.
