Sundance 2025 Review: East of Wall – “A modern take on the American Western.”

Porshia Zimiga, Brynn Darling, Leanna Shumpert and Chancey Ryder Witt appear in East of Wall by Kate Beecroft, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

When director Kate Beecroft was driving through America documenting people and shooting film in the hopes of finding a creative seed, she found herself in South Dakota.  And, she was told if she was looking for a story to tell she need look no further than Tabatha Zimiga, who lived just east of a town called Wall.  So, Beecroft went there, and after meeting Tabatha and her family, she spent the next three years living with them and writing a script based off their lives; a script that became East of Wall.

During those years Beecroft met a determined woman, with a tough exterior, who was hurting on the inside.  Tabatha is a horse trainer currently living on a large ranch left to her after her husband, John, passed away.  She lives with her young son Stetson, her teenage daughter Porshia and a group of wayward teens.  They come from different homes whose parents have maybe come on hard times, or have substance issues.  Tabatha commands respect from these kids, laying the ground rules that entitle them to stay.  All of them help out at the ranch, but it’s a lot of mouths to feed under one small roof and with the sale of their horses being the main source of income, making ends meet can be difficult.

When Beecroft knew she wanted to tell Tabatha’s story, she also knew she wanted all these remarkable people to play themselves.  So she set out to make this a work of docu-fiction.  Most of who we see on screen are exactly who they say they are.  But, the director injects a little star power into the project, getting Jennifer Ehle to play Tabatha’s mother, Tracey; and it’s as far from Pride and Prejudice as she could possibly get.  Tracey is a chain-smoking, moonshine drinking tough-as-nails woman who has had hard times of her own, yet now seems to have this air of calm and wisdom about her.

The other traditional actor in the film is Scoot McNairy, who plays Roy, a wealthy rancher from Texas who looks to buy Tabatha’s property.  This is the fictional component of the story, yet a needed plot point to bring some cohesion and conflict to Beecroft’s script.

This sort of hybrid filmmaking isn’t new, and surely Chloe Zhao’s Oscar-winning Nomadland serves as inspiration here, even down to some of the beautiful cinematography of the South Dakota badlands.  There are times it works more than others.  In some scenes where McNairy and Ehle are sharing dialogue with their real-life counterparts it feels as if they are talking at them, instead of with them.  Some of the line delivery seems a bit stiff and unnatural in comparison, which is understandable considering they are working with actors who have been in the business for decades.

Yet, when we see the Zimiga clan in their environment it supersedes any other impressions you may have made.  Some have more natural on-camera ability than others, but all of them more than inspire in their innate skill with and around horses.  Tabatha is well-known for knowing everything about these majestic animals, and her demeanour and ability to read these horses is amazing.  It’s also something that she has passed on to her daughter Porshia who can ride like the wind.  Some of the most stunning shots in the film include the teenager maintaining a perfectly still posture in her saddle as a horse gallops beneath her through the arid landscape.  It’s truly breathtaking to watch.

By introducing us to Tabatha, Porshia, Tracey and the rest of the inhabitants at the ranch, Beecroft crafts a modern take on the American Western.  It’s one that sees strong, capable women at the forefront, yet also captures the economic realities of this part of the world and the creative thinking needed to survive.  Tabatha even utilizes TikTok to sell horses in an effort to reach a wider buying audience.  Yet, what East of Wall really succeeds in, is capturing a woman who is still grieving, who has a lot of healing to do, but whose resiliency is a shining light and inspiration for everyone around her.

East of Wall premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.  For more information head to the Sundance website.