The Burning Plain is a 2009 film directed and written by Guillermo Arriaga, the screenwriter of Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), and Babel (2006). The film stars Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrence and Kim Basinger.
In Arriaga’s directorial debut, he films a story that has multipart story strands woven together like in his previous screenplays. Filming of The Burning Plain began in New Mexico in November 2007, and the film was released in late 2008 in various festivals, before general releases in 2009.
Plot: The past and the present have a curious way of effecting one another as several people seperated by time and space are about to discover Mariana, a 16-year-old girl trying to put together the shattered lives of her parents in a Mexican border town; Sylvia, a woman in Portland who must undertake an emotional odyssey to burnish a sin from her past; Gina and Nick, a couple who must deal with an intense and clandestine affair; and Maria, a young girl who helps her parents find redemption, forgiveness and love. The five will discover that their actions may mean the difference between life and death as well as their own journeys into seeking redemption…and whether or not they will ever find it.
Cast
* Charlize Theron as Sylvia
* Kim Basinger as Gina
* Joaquim de Almeida as Nick Martinez
* John Corbett as John
* Robin Tunney as Laura
* Brett Cullen as Robert
* Danny Pino as Santiago Martinez
* José María Yazpik as Carlos
* Jennifer Lawrence as Mariana
* J.D. Pardo as Young Santiago
* Tessa Ia as Maria Martinez
* Rachel Ticotin as Ana
* Diego J. Torres as Cristobal Martinez
