Faultline
A ten-year drought brings local ranches to the brink of disaster. The search for Bert Neville takes its toll on Rail and Mitra. They break up and Rail continues on alone. Travis, Ziggy and Karin hitchhike in high country and get lost in a burnt out forest. Taylor travels with Ukrainian gallery owners looking for the prototypical western artist. Dane introduces Rail to his mother, Violet, a full blood hewise, who remembers the horrors of the Indian schools. Her ex-husband Bedford refuses to give his real name to a white man. Her daughter April broadcasts a tribal blog on indian affairs. Dane and Rail are stopped by local militia types. Entrepreneurs propose a geothermal plant to ranchers and locals divided by political views. Rail finds an old map in an abandoned ranch and Mitra, now recovered, rejoins him. Is the mystery of Bert Neville about to be solved?
Summary
Set against a parched Western landscape after a decade without meaningful rain, Faultline follows a loosely connected group of people confronting environmental disaster, political unrest, and the unfinished wounds of American history. At the center is Rail, a solitary searcher determined to find the elusive Bert Neville. His journey is complicated by his breakup with Mitra, whose own struggles leave both of them questioning what they are seeking and whether they can continue together. Around Rail’s story, the film unfolds through several intersecting narratives. Travis, Ziggy, and Karin hitchhike through the high country and become stranded in a forest scarred by fire, while Taylor travels with Ukrainian gallery owners who are pursuing the idealized figure of a quintessential Western artist. Rail’s association with Dane leads him into the latter’s complicated family history. Dane’s mother, Violet, is a full-blood Indigenous woman who carries memories of the abuse and cultural destruction inflicted through Indian boarding schools. Her former husband, Bedford, resists revealing even his name to a white stranger, while her daughter April uses a tribal blog to comment on Indigenous affairs and contemporary politics. As ranchers and local residents struggle to survive the drought, outside entrepreneurs promote a geothermal project that divides the community. Militia figures add another threat, turning the region’s economic anxiety and ideological hostility into something more immediate and dangerous. The discovery of an old map at an abandoned ranch draws Rail closer to the mystery surrounding Bert Neville, while Mitra’s return brings their unresolved relationship back into the story. Faultline is less a conventional mystery-western than a fragmented portrait of a society under pressure. Its title suggests both geological instability and the deep cultural, racial, and political fractures running through the community. The film examines the mythology of the American West alongside the realities of Indigenous dispossession, ecological collapse, distrust of institutions, and the competing visions of progress imposed on rural places. Its characters move through a landscape where personal histories and national traumas overlap, leaving the truth about the past—and the possibility of a future—deliberately elusive.
