Rebuilding Movie Review : Interest has surged around Rebuilding after its competition screening at the 2025 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where early reactions singled out Josh O’Connor’s restrained performance and the film’s unvarnished depiction of life after disaster. The film opens in Prague cinemas this weekend, adding momentum to international attention.
What Is Rebuilding About?
Rebuilding follows a divorced father trying to survive the emotional and practical fallout of a wildfire.
Josh O’Connor plays Dusty, a cowboy with limited financial means whose family home is destroyed by fires in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. With nowhere else to go, he ends up living in a government-run FEMA trailer park.
The story tracks Dusty’s daily efforts to stay afloat while holding onto his dignity, his sense of purpose, and his relationship with his young daughter.
Who Made the Film and Why Does It Feel So Real?
The film is written and directed by Max Walker-Silverman.
His 2022 debut A Love Song also explored life in the rural American west, and Rebuilding continues that focus with a similarly grounded tone. Walker-Silverman draws heavily on real locations, filming in rural Colorado to give the story a lived-in texture.
That decision gives the film an authenticity that underpins every scene, from the quiet stretches of land to the makeshift rows of trailers housing displaced families.
Who Are the Key Characters Dusty Encounters?
In the FEMA camp, Dusty meets others who have also lost everything.
One of the most significant is Mali, played by Kali Reis, a woman who became a single mother after her husband died in the fires. Their conversations unfold gently, without forced drama, revealing how each person in the camp carries a private burden.
The setting and ensemble evoke comparisons to Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, but with a crucial difference: these characters are not choosing a transient life. They are there because disaster left them with no alternative.
What Does “Rebuilding” Really Mean in the Film?
The title refers less to physical reconstruction and more to emotional survival.
Dusty cannot bring himself to return to the site of his former ranch until a late and quietly moving sequence. Instead, his real struggle is internal — learning how to function again after losing the place that defined his life.
He shares custody of his daughter, Callie Rose, played by Lily LaTorre, with his ex-wife Ruby, portrayed by Meghann Fahy. Work prospects are scarce in their small town, and the few opportunities available would take him far away.
That looming separation gives his time with Callie Rose a fragile intensity, as he fears these days together might be the last for a while.
How Does the Film Portray Survival Differently?
Rebuilding is a survival story, but not in a traditional sense.
It is not about conquering nature or triumphing over adversity. Instead, it focuses on how people endure when their personal world collapses while the broader world continues unchanged.
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One of the film’s most quietly striking scenes involves Dusty needing internet access so Callie Rose can complete her homework. There is no connection at the FEMA camp, so they walk to the local library. It is closed, but they manage to catch a wifi signal from outside.
The moment captures the film’s emotional core: small acts of persistence standing in for larger, unspoken losses.
Why Is Josh O’Connor’s Performance Being Praised?
O’Connor delivers a deeply restrained portrayal.
He suppresses emotion rather than projecting it, allowing grief and uncertainty to surface in subtle gestures. There is an inherent kindness to his screen presence, something Rian Johnson also used to effect in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.
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In Rebuilding, that quality becomes central. O’Connor presents Dusty as a man shaped by external forces who refuses to let those forces define his character. The result is a performance built on quiet resilience rather than overt drama.
How Do the Supporting Performances Add Depth?
The film gives space for its ensemble to breathe.
Amy Madigan plays Ruby’s mother with warmth and steadiness, grounding scenes that could have drifted into sentimentality. The role is far removed from her Oscar-nominated turn in Weapons, highlighting her range.
Lily LaTorre is equally effective as Callie Rose, balancing vulnerability and determination. Her performance strengthens the emotional stakes and deepens the portrait of Dusty as a quietly heroic father.
What Role Does the Landscape Play in the Story?
The Colorado setting is more than a backdrop.
Cinematographer Alfonso Herrera Salcedo frames both lush valleys and fire-scarred terrain with a painterly eye. The contrast between renewal and devastation mirrors Dusty’s inner state.
By filming in areas affected by real wildfires, the production adds an almost documentary-like realism. The land itself becomes an active presence in the narrative, reflecting loss, endurance, and slow recovery.
Why Does Rebuilding Feel Relevant Right Now?
The film centres on the personal aftermath of disaster.
Rather than focusing on spectacle or large-scale destruction, it examines how life continues in altered form. Relationships persist, routines must be renegotiated, and identity has to be rebuilt alongside physical surroundings.
In an era marked by increasingly frequent climate-related disasters, Rebuilding resonates as a study of what comes after the headlines fade.
What Makes This Film Stand Out Internationally?
Rebuilding has found traction beyond the United States.
Its inclusion in competition at the 2025 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival positioned it as a serious work of contemporary cinema rather than a niche indie. The Prague cinema release this weekend extends that reach into Europe.
The combination of Walker-Silverman’s understated direction, Herrera Salcedo’s evocative cinematography, and O’Connor’s empathetic lead performance gives the film a quiet authority.
Why Rebuilding Leaves a Lasting Impression
At its core, Rebuilding is a meditation on resilience and connection.
Dusty’s journey is not about restoring a ranch. It is about reconstructing a sense of self and learning how care, responsibility, and human connection become survival tools in their own right.
The film finds beauty in small gestures and perseverance in the face of loss. Its emotional impact comes not from dramatic turns, but from the accumulation of ordinary moments lived under extraordinary strain.
Rebuilding stands as a tender, understated portrait of modern rural America — one that lingers because it feels true to life rather than shaped for effect.