Sonoma County co-stars in new James Franco film 'Burn Country'

Sonoma County people who see the new feature film “Burn Country” will recognize some familiar places, and even a few familiar faces among the actors.

Filmed during July and August 2015 and starring James Franco, the movie shows “a fictional version” of the woodlands and seacoast of west Sonoma County, said Ian Olds, director and co-screenwriter of the film now playing at the Rialto in Sebastopol, as well as in San Francisco and selected markets across the country.

Despite glimpses of the Rio Theatre in Monte Rio and other local landmarks, the landscape and atmosphere of the film are eerie and often ominous, offering a portal into a strange world of secrets and intrigue.

“I always knew I wanted to write about Sonoma County,” said Olds, 41, who grew up near Sebastopol and now lives in Brooklyn, but he said the film presents an “existential view” Sonoma County.

It follows Osman (played by Dominic Rains), a refugee from Afghanistan granted asylum in the U.S. after serving as a translator and guide - or “fixer" - for an American journalist covering the war in Afghanistan.

While staying in Sonoma County with the journalist’s mother, who is also the local country sheriff (played by Melissa Leo, 2011 Academy Award winner for supporting actress in “The Fighter”), Osman volunteers to write items for the local weekly newspaper’s police blotter.

Soon he encounters a volatile and sometimes violent hot tub mechanic (Franco) and assorted other eccentric characters, some of whom followers of live local theater will recognize.

Santa Rosa actor Tim Kniffin has a featured role as a enigmatic local theater guru, and busy local actor and Santa Rosa High School performing arts teacher John Craven appears as the editor of the local newspaper.

A number of long-established local actors also appear in smaller roles, including Liz Jahren, Keith Baker, Brent Lindsay of The Imaginists theater company and Shakespeare in the Cannery director David Lear.

“Burn Country,” originally titled “The Fixer” when it premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York, also draws on Olds’ own experiences in Afghanistan.

“I spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan making documentaries,” Olds said. “I was making a film about journalism in Afghanistan, and the translator we were working with ended up being kidnapped and murdered after we were back in the U.S. I went back and made a documentary film about him.

“In that process, another of the fixers we were working with ended up getting asylum in Europe. Once he got there, he didn’t know what to do with himself.”

That led to the creation of Osman, the “Burn Country” character who sees Sonoma County as strange territory. The audience in turn sees his new home through his eyes.

Olds, who co-wrote the script with Paul Felton, was able to recruit Franco for the film because of Olds’ “day job” as a film editor.

“I’ve edited some of his film work in the past, so we knew each other,” Olds said. “I’ve also done some writing for him, so we had a relationship. It was a similar situation with Melissa Leo. I was in graduate school in New York and did a short film with her for a mutual friend.”

Kniffin, a familiar presence on live theater stages in Sonoma County and San Francisco, got his role after a recorded audition for Olds, arranged through local casting director Michelle Maxson, who also appears in the film.

“Tim hadn’t done a lot of film work, but I knew him by reputation for his stage work,” Olds said.

Kniffin said he found his role as a somewhat mysterious leader of a cult-like theater group challenging and gratifying.

“There was a night shoot where I was the most challenged I’ve ever been physically,” Kniffin said. “I had to be in a pool, and it was freezing. I was in and out, over and over, in the middle of the night in Sebastopol.

“But when I do plays out of town, I can’t come home between shows. This way, filming at all these local locations, I got to sleep in my own bed.”

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 707-521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @danarts.