''Burn Your Maps'' is a 2016 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Jordan Roberts, based on the

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

of the same name by Robyn Joy Leff. The film stars

Vera Farmiga Vera Ann Farmiga ( ; born August 6, 1973) is an American actress who is best known for portraying paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring Universe films '' The Conjuring'' (2013), '' The Conjuring 2'' (2016), '' Annabelle Co ...

Jacob Tremblay Jacob Tremblay ( ; born October 5, 2006) is a Canadian actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Canadian Screen Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, a Young Artist Award, and nominations for a Screen Actors Guild Award, tw ...

Suraj Sharma Suraj Sharma (born 21 March 1993) is an Indian actor who made his debut in the 2012 film '' Life of Pi''. Directed by Ang Lee, the film was adapted from the novel of the same name, and earned Sharma critical acclaim as well as a BAFTA Rising S ...

, Ramón Rodríguez,

Virginia Madsen Virginia Gayle Madsen (born September 11, 1961) is an American actress and film producer. She made her film debut in ''Class'' (1983), which was filmed in her native Chicago. After she moved to Los Angeles, director David Lynch cast her as Pr ...

, and

Marton Csokas Marton Paul Csokas (, hu, Csókás Márton Pál; born 30 June 1966) is a Hungarian-New Zealand actor of film, stage, and television. A graduate of the Toi Whakaari drama school, he has worked extensively in Australia and Hollywood, along with ...

. The film had its world premiere at the

2016 Toronto International Film Festival The 41st annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 8 to 18 September 2016. The first announcement of films to be screened at the festival took place on 26 July. Almost 400 films were shown. Awards The festival's final awards were ...

on September 9, 2016, and was released on June 21, 2019, by

Vertical Entertainment Vertical Entertainment is an American film distribution and production company founded by producers Richard B. "Rich" Goldberg and Mitch Budin in 2012. History In 2012, Rich Goldberg & Mitch Budin founded Vertical Entertainment, a film distribut ...

Plot

After the death of his infant sister, 8-year-old American boy Wes tells his grieving parents that he is a Mongolian goat-herder who was born in the wrong place. Joined by an ambitious young filmmaker named Ismail, Wes leads his family to Mongolia on a soul-searching journey.

Cast

as Alise Firth *

as Wes Firth *

as Ismail *

as Victoria *

as Connor Firth * Ramón Rodríguez as Batbayar * Taylor Geare as Becca Firth * Glynis Davies as Lillian *

Jason Scott Lee Jason Scott Lee (; born November 19, 1966) is an American actor and martial artist. He played Mowgli in Disney's 1994 live-action adaptation of ''The Jungle Book'' and Bruce Lee in the 1993 martial arts film '' Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story''. He ...

as Shaman Helper * Nomin Bayasgalan as Enkhtuyaa * Valerie Planche as Maureen

Production

Development

On June 18, 2015, it was reported that Julie Kirkham was to produce a feature film titled ''Burn Your Maps'', written and directed by Jordan Roberts. The film was green-lit by producer Mark Canton a few days prior to Kirkham's death. ''Burn Your Maps'' is a feature film adaptation of author Robyn Joy Leff's short story of the same name. Canton and

Courtney Solomon Courtney Solomon (born September 1,1970) is a writer, director, producer, and entrepreneur from Toronto, Ontario. He has been involved with production, marketing and distribution of over 80 movies. Life and career At 19, he formed Sweetpea Ente ...

serve as producers under their Cinelou Films banner, with Patrick Aiello producing through his Patrick Aiello Productions.

Jonathan Goldsmith Jonathan Goldsmith (born September 26, 1938) is an American character actor. He began his career on the New York stage, then started a career in film and television. He appeared in several TV shows from the 1960s to the 1990s. He is best known ...

composed the film's musical score.

Casting

The casting of

, and

was reported on July 23, 2015.

' casting was confirmed near the end of production, on August 28, 2015.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

began in Calgary,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada on July 27, 2015, and was completed on September 2, 2015. Filming took place in nearby

Kananaskis Country Kananaskis Country is a multi-use area west of Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the foothills and front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The area is named for the Kananaskis River, which was named by John Palliser in 1858 after a Cree acquaintance. Cove ...

, at the Stoney Indian Reserves, which doubled for

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. Scenes were also filmed at the Eighth Avenue Place tower, which doubled for an American office space and for a

Tokyo International Airport , officially , and sometimes called as Tokyo Haneda Airport or Haneda International Airport , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary ...

terminal. Over one hundred Calgary residents of Mongolian heritage were hired to act in minor roles.

Release

''Burn Your Maps'' first screened at the

on September 9, 2016, and had its red carpet premiere at the festival on September 15. It was initially scheduled for limited release on February 24, 2017, before expanding at a later date. The release date was subsequently pushed back to March 17, 2017, with a

wide release In the American motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across the country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical r ...

following on March 24, 2017. However, it was ultimately pulled from the schedule.

distributed the film in the United States. The film was distributed internationally by

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of ...

as part of a six-film deal with Cinelou. It was released on June 21, 2019.

Critical reception

''Burn Your Maps'' holds a 67% approval rating on review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 15 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 7.04/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film holds a rating of 50 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "mixed or average".

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burn Your Maps 2016 films 2010s coming-of-age comedy films 2010s road comedy-drama films American coming-of-age comedy-drama films American road comedy-drama films Cinelou Films films Films about children Films about families Films shot in Calgary Films set in Chicago Films set in Ohio Films set in Mongolia Warner Bros. films 2016 comedy films 2016 drama films 2010s English-language films Films directed by Jordan Roberts 2010s American films