Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyChloé Zhao’s astonishing career has been a series of hairpin turns. Born in Beijing, in 1982, she wound up at New York University’s film school, where she studied under Spike Lee. Starting in 2015, she directed three small-scale, slow-burn features set in the American heartland: “Songs My Brothers Taught Me,” “The Rider,” and “Nomadland.” All three capture the expansive beauty of the West—in particular South Dakota, with its moonlike badlands and wide, grassy plains—while using local nonprofessional actors to achieve documentary-like naturalism.
