Burn Country

Osman has been on the front lines of violence since he was a teenager, working as a fixer for Western journalists covering the war in Afghanistan. So at the age of 28, he's understandably excited to find himself living in a small bohemian town on the coast -- poppy fields and Kalishnikov-wielding warlords giving way to redwood groves and artisanal winemakers. He may be stuck living with Gloria, an American friend's mom, and doesn't have a car, but he's got a job lined up as a reporter on the local paper and is going to use it as a way to get to the heart of his new home.

Or so he thinks. Turns out the paper's dying, and all the pitying, ponytailed editor can offer him is a low-paid internship on the paper's police blotter. Safe from the dangers of war, but increasingly restless, Osman tries to turn his menial work into "Afghan-style" coverage of petty crime. In unfamiliar territory and with no clue of where to begin, he finds a fixer of his own -- an enthusiastic but unstable hot-tub craftsman named LINDSAY. Together they delve into the backwoods of this small town -- a shadow Northern California peopled by pyromaniac teenagers, poly-amorous avant-garde actors, and a hostile criminal family called the Sokurov Brothers.