Dee Ree's Epic Netflix War Saga Mudbound

With Pariah and Bessie, queer black filmmaker Dee Rees turned the intimate into the epic, lending vastness to the inner lives of her characters. With Mudbound, Rees does the reverse, offsetting the grand scale of Hillary Jordan's WWII-era novel with the nuanced struggles of the black and white families who populate it. "In terms of scope, it's my most ambitious project," Rees says of the film, largely set on a Mississippi farm. "But there's so much inner dialogue." Starring Carey Mulligan, Jason Mitchell, and Mary J. Blige, Mudbound explores the actual war and the war at home, where empathy and racism are at constant odds. For Rees, who grew up in Nashville next door to a Klan member, the movie's grimmer content is only magnified in today's post-Charlottesville America. "Our country has a violent history," she says, "so we can't be surprised when we revert back to violence. The veneer may have changed, but attitudes haven't."

Watch the Mudbound trailer, below.