''Burn Your Maps'' is a 2016 American

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film written and directed by Jordan Roberts, based on the

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single 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 old ...

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

Vera Farmiga Vera Ann Farmiga ( ; born August 6, 1973) is an American actress. Farmiga began her professional acting career on stage in the original Broadway production of '' Taking Sides'' (1996). After expanding to television and film, her breakthrough ...

Jacob Tremblay Jacob Tremblay ( ; born October 5, 2006) is a Canadian actor. He became known for his role as a child born in captivity in ''Room'' (2015), for which he won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer and became the youngest nomine ...

Suraj Sharma Suraj Sharma (born 16 March 1993) is an Indian actor who made his debut in the 2012 film ''Life of Pi (film), Life of Pi''. Directed by Ang Lee, the film was adapted from the Life of Pi, novel of the same name, and earned Sharma critical acclai ...

, Ramón Rodríguez,

Virginia Madsen Virginia Madsen (born September 11, 1961) is an American actress. She is the recipient of two Critics' Choice Awards, an Independent Spirit Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Gl ...

, and

Marton Csokas Marton Paul Csokas (, ; born 30 June 1966) is a 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 his native country, and often portr ...

. 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 (formerly Vertical Entertainment) is an American independent film distribution company founded by producers Rich Goldberg and Mitch Budin in 2012. Vertical releases films across all mediums, including theatrical, video on demand, physica ...

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''. P ...

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 Mark Canton is an American film producer and executive. Early life and education Canton was born to a Jewish family in Queens, New York City, the son of Shirley and Arthur Canton, who worked in the film industry on marketing and publicity - incl ...

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 film producer from Toronto, Ontario. He has been involved with production, marketing, and distribution of over 80 movies. In 2000, at the age of 29, he produced and directed the critically panned ''D ...

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 the ...

began in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

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

Kananaskis Country Kananaskis Country (abbreviated: K-Country) is a multi-use area west of Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the Rocky Mountain Foothills, foothills and front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. Its western edge borders Banff National Park and the Alberta-Br ...

, at the Stoney Indian Reserves, which doubled for

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

. Scenes were also filmed at the

Eighth Avenue Place Eighth Avenue Place is a twin-tower building complex located in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The complex includes a 49-storey East tower, 40-storey West office tower, and a three-storey indoor urban park. The complex is housed on the ...

tower, which doubled for an American office space and for a Tokyo International Airport 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 __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

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

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 studio and distribution arm of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group division of Warner Bros., both of which are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex ...

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 aggregator, 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 ...

, 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 an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, 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 2016 comedy-drama films 2010s American films 2010s coming-of-age comedy-drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s road comedy-drama films American coming-of-age comedy-drama films American road comedy-drama films Cinelou Films films English-language road comedy-drama films Films about children Films about families Films directed by Jordan Roberts Films produced by Courtney Solomon Films produced by Mark Canton Films shot in Calgary Films set in Chicago Films set in Ohio Films set in Mongolia Films with screenplays by Jordan Roberts (writer) Mongolia–United States relations Warner Bros. films