The gypsum plant that kept her Nevada town alive shuts down, so a woman in her 60s takes to the road as a modern nomad. She lives in a van, works seasonal jobs and finds community among others who have chosen to live on the margins. Zhao's film blurs the line between documentary and fiction.
Nomadland is a 2020 drama film directed by Chloé Zhao. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (3 narrative and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Licorice Pizza uses several of the same techniques.
Casting real people from the community being shown, such as workers and local residents, with no trained actors in those roles. Their looks and behavior feel true in a way acting can't copy.
How this film uses it
Zhao casts real nomads (Linda May, Swankie, Bob Wells) alongside Frances McDormand. She lets each person draw on their own experience of nomadic life in their performance. The real nomads are pretty much just being themselves on camera. McDormand gives the film a story to hold onto, and the real nomads give it the documentary truth that makes the fiction carry weight.
Where to see it
Bob Wells's campfire gatherings. The real community of nomads talks about their lives and losses. You are watching documentary and fiction at the same time, and the scene keeps both going.
Shooting with a handheld camera so the frame shakes and moves with the action. This documentary-style look, called cinema vérité, puts you uncomfortably close to the character.
How this film uses it
Joshua James Richards shoots Nomadland with the sensitivity of a nature photographer. He uses available light, meaning whatever light is already there. His handheld camera follows the people where most cameras would lead them. He watches the American West with the patience of someone who has been let into a world. Because of that texture, Fern's world feels like something the film discovered.
Where to see it
The landscapes of the American West. The camera gives Fern the same patience it gives the land around her. The way it's shot, both seem equally worth your attention.
Telling the story as a loose string of separate adventures, often following a low-status hero through different levels of society. With no single plot, the episodes add up to a portrait of a world.
How this film uses it
Fern moves through Amazon fulfillment centers, beet fields, national parks and campfire communities. Each location is a chapter with its own people and its own discovery. This is a picaresque structure, meaning a story told as a string of separate episodes. It suits the subject, a life built around moving with no destination. It also suits a film that won't force a plot onto what is essentially a documentary of how some Americans live.
Where to see it
The Amazon warehouse sequence. It is one episode among many. The corporate world and the nomadic world overlap for a while, then Fern moves on.
Watching events from a measured distance with no swelling music, tear-jerking close-ups or showy camera moves. The film trusts what happens to carry the weight on its own.
How this film uses it
Zhao's camera watches Fern, and the film never tells you how to feel about her choices. When she turns down the offer of a conventional home, the film just watches. It doesn't approve of the decision and it doesn't question it. That restraint is the point. This is a life, these are her choices and the film's job is to witness them.
Where to see it
Fern declining Dave's offer. The camera watches her leave. The score and the editing don't tell you whether this is freedom or loss.
Questions
Nomadland: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Nomadland use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Nomadland (2020): Non-Professional Cast Authenticity, Handheld Cinema Vérité, Picaresque Structure and Observational Restraint.
Who directed Nomadland?
Chloé Zhao directed Nomadland, released in 2020. CineCode also covers The Rider (2018), Eternals (2021), Hamnet (2025).
What films are similar to Nomadland?
Films that share techniques with Nomadland include Licorice Pizza (2021), Winter's Bone (2010), Moonlight (2016), 12 Years a Slave (2013).
