A few years ago, I had the pleasure of seeing a documentary called The Fixer at the Tribeca Film Festival, which focused on the tremendously brave work done by Afghani translators who work with the United States Army. It's one of those documentaries that immediately makes you think about the horror show that is war, and the insane indignation suffered by the glut of veterans who come back home with nothing to do and no help.

For better and worse, that's not the case with Burn Country, the wild, insidious thriller that premiered at Tribeca this year under the name The Fixer. In this case, director Ian Olds has created a hypnotic, unnerving little gem about an Afghani translator (Dominic Rains) who arrives in a small American town and is almost instantly embroiled in a series of grisly murders amongst the locals. Melissa Leo plays the sheriff, who begins working with Rains' character, while James Franco plays a stoner-friendly local who befriends him. I won't give anything else about the movie away, but when it arrives on December 9th, seek this one out.

Here's the trailer for Burn Country:

Here's the Tribeca Film Festival synopsis for Burn Country:

Leaving behind his life as a fixer for Western journalists reporting on the war in Afghanistan, Osman (Dominic Rains) lands in a small bohemian town in Northern California, living on the couch of his friend’s mother (Melissa Leo) and working as a crime reporter for the local newspaper. Restless and eager to find purpose in the context of his new life, he befriends a couple of locals—the eccentric and unstable Lindsay (James Franco) and the elusive Sandra (Rachel Brosnahan)—recruiting them to help him penetrate the town’s peculiar subculture. When Lindsay mysteriously goes missing, Osman gets drawn into the backwoods of the town in order to find him. As things begin to take a dangerous turn, Osman is forced to confront the untenable reality of his situation.