The Last Season

An unusual and touching documentary, filmmaker Sara Dosa's The Last Season was shot in Central Oregon during the height of the area's wild mushroom season. Mushroom hunters in search of the wild matsutake mushroom pay for a license to dig up the delicacy, which is usually hidden beneath twigs and undergrowth. Freelance pickers then sell their harvest to on-site buyers in a cycle that goes on for a few weeks every fall. During this time, perennial returnees have a chance to interact with other mushroom hunters. The focus here is on two haunted warriors who hunt mushrooms: Roger, a 75-year-old Vietnam War veteran who was wounded in 1963, and Kouy, a 46-year-old one-time platoon leader from Cambodia who fought the Khmer Rouge and survived starvation and hardship under the latter's reign of terror. Roger and his wife become surrogate parents for Kouy—who lost his own mother and father during the war—and the emotions Roger feels for Kouy help to ameliorate his traumatized, uncaring self-image. The relationship is a special and meaningful one for both sides, and as Roger succumbs to ill health and begins talking about end-of-life decisions, everyone involved takes comfort in their collective family spirit. A low-key film that is rich with the peculiar rhythms of seasonal work and temporary community—a time when people briefly step out of their regular lives and assume a second identity—this is recommended. (T. Keogh)