The Burning Plain

The Burning Plain is a 2008 drama film directed and written by Guillermo Arriaga, the screenwriter of Amores perros 2000,Grams 2003, and Babel 2006. The film stars Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Basinger and Joaquim de Almeida. In Arriagas directorial debut, he films a story that has multipart story strands woven together as 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 a limited theatrical release in 2009.

The story starts some time during the mid1990s in a small town near Las Cruces, New Mexico close to the border with Mexico, where we are introduced to Gina Kim Basinger, a wife and mother to four children. Gina is having an affair with a local man named Nick Martinez Joaquim de Almeida, who also has a family of his own but, unbeknownst to the two, Ginas teenage daughter Mariana Jennifer Lawrence finds out about their love affair. Mariana follows her mother to Nicks trailer. Knowing the two are inside and, in an effort to make them end their affair, she disconnects the gas pipe leading into the trailer and sets it on fire. The flames eventually reach a gas tank, which explodes, consuming the entire trailer and claiming Nicks and Ginas lives, although Mariana had no intention of killing either of them. After their funeral, Mariana and Nicks teenage son, Santiago JD Pardo, slowly begin to develop a relationship of their own. Mariana soon becomes aware that she is pregnant with Santiagos daughter. The two flee to Mexico amid disapproval from their families and decide to have the baby there but, after she gives birth to their daughter, Mariana abandons her family and changes her name to Sylvia.More than a decade later, Sylvia now played by Charlize Theron is working at a highend restaurant in Oregon. Despite her success, she resorts to promiscuity and has persistent thoughts of suicide. Here, we see a mysterious man following her around. It is Carlos Jose Maria Yazpik, a close friend and businesspartner of Santiago. After an accident involving their cropdusting plane, the hospitalized Santiago urges Carlos to look for Sylvia, for whom Santiago has been searching since she abandoned him and their twodayold daughter. ........

Source: Wikipedia