winters bone - bit rusty, first essay question of the new year

How far does ‘Winter’s Bone’ rely upon an understanding of its social context? Refer in detail to at least one sequence from the film. [20] (500-750 word response)

Winters bone in my opinion relies heavily upon an understanding of the social context behind the film. Set in the Ozarks, in a small community where illegal methamphetamine trade flourishes in a devastated economy, Winter's Bone follows the travails of Ree Dolly, a 17-year-old girl who spends the length of the film trudging through the bleak chill of southwestern Missouri in its darkest season, with the trees black spikes and hills bleached silver and rust. Ree's father, a meth cooker, has gone missing while out on bail, but not before putting the house his three children live in up as collateral against his bond. To save her family from homelessness, Ree must find her father, and to do that, she navigates a harrowing underground where blood ties offer no protection from the drug trade's brutality. We need to understand that in the Ozarks in the early 2000’s the law wasn’t a governed law set and followed by a society of people, it was a law set by the land that was obeyed and passed down through generations, where the girls kept quiet and cleaned and cooked whilst the men hunted and used violence to control people
A scene to show this would be the scene where Ree goes to see her aunt and uncle for the first time, this is where get the first look at this law that has been set in place by the locals. Ree is greeted by her aunt and bought into the kitchen she asks questions but shouldn’t be, she is told to shut up by teardrop and he ends up choking her. In todays society that wouldn’t be acceptable, its illegal however this is not seen as illegal in their society.
Understanding this about their society is a key to understanding the film itself, as its an independent film its obviously different to mainstream releases, focusing on a taboo subject like drug usage and cooking whilst showing a dysfunctional family and society. So understanding the social context behind the film gives you a new perception that this is everyday life for them, this is how they live and bring slight to the fact that this film isn’t fantasy its more social realist or hyper realist.