Burn Country (2016)

The plight of Afghan refugees intermingles with a backwoods murder mystery in the intense drama Burn Country (2016). Dominic Rains stars as Osman, an Afghani journalist who was embedded with an American reporter by the name of Gabe (James Oliver Wheatley) until he secures asylum in the United States. Gabe stays behind but tells Osman that he is welcome to stay with his mother Gloria (Melissa Leo) in their small northern California town until he can secure more permanent housing. Osman lands a job working for the local paper and working on the police blotter where he befriends local burnout Lindsay (James Franco). When Lindsay goes missing, Osman decides to do a little of his own investigative journalism until his bosses at the paper and the local police put a stop to his investigation. Osman soon runs afoul of local underworld figure Dmitri Sokurov (Thomas Jay Ryan) who also encourages him to stop looking for Lindsay, leading Osman to believe that there's a conspiracy running through this small town that's bigger than him or anyone else. Even a burgeoning relationship with local gal Sandra (Rachel Brosnahan) demonstrates to him how tight the link is between the cops and the crooks in this town. Will he ever get to the bottom of this case or will his desire to keep a low profile in the United States be enough to make him back down for good? We're not sure but we do know that Dominic Rains looks mighty fine with his shirt off on a trip to the beach with Brosnahan... it's just a damn shame it wasn't a nude beach!