( CNN ) A year after its Cannes debut and finally seeing a theatrical release , `` Lost River '' is still causing quite a stir . Booed at its premiere and mocked by reviewers , Ryan Gosling 's first feature as director has been divisive , to put it mildly . But there has been one shining light cutting through the fog of critical hyperbole : its setting , a besmirched and decaying Detroit . Wavering on the brink of annihilation , yet providing kindling for its own rebirth , the city is captured in all its waning splendor , the perfect backdrop for Gosling 's post-industrial gothic . Speaking about the film in London , Gosling made clear that the city was at the heart of the project -- in fact , without Detroit 's crumbling edifices there would be no film at all . Gosling said that `` Lost River '' began as a collection of speculative shots of the Brewster-Douglass Projects , the first black social housing development in America and a place Motown legends The Supremes and boxer Joe Louis once called home . `` I heard [ the authorities ] were going to tear them down , '' Gosling said . `` I had to shoot them before they did . '' Taking time out between acting jobs , he ventured into the projects . `` I started shooting more and more , '' he explained , `` and then I realized that I was making a film . Then I started writing [ the script ] during the process of filming . '' Gosling 's affection for the Motor City is longstanding , the actor growing up `` not too far away '' in Cornwall , Ontario . `` It seemed like everything cool came from Detroit ... the whole American Dream , '' he reminisces . `` The Model-T , Motown , the refrigerator ... '' Now though he references `` 40 miles of dead neighborhoods , '' the city declaring bankruptcy . `` Houses are burning and things are being torn down , '' he says , `` and within that there are families trying to hold on to their homes . For them it has become a nightmare and I wanted to make a film about that . '' The title itself alludes to a once thriving community now displaced , its homes at the bottom of a reservoir built with little concern for the residents -- man-made interference with untold social repercussions . Speaking in broader terms , Gosling argues `` there are Lost Rivers everywhere and we wanted to share the experience these people were having . '' On screen he paints a nihilistic image of wanton destruction ; torched properties and bulldozers jostling for our attention amid acts of extreme human violence -- sometimes self-inflicted . The director plainly states that as a location it `` was pretty dangerous . '' He describes `` an energy there that was threatening ... We had a very charmed experience [ filming ] . It worked its way into the fabric of the movie -- - a tone of impending threat that was just there . '' However there are signs of humanity and regeneration amongst the chaos , on camera and off . For the film 's young protagonist , every raid on an unoccupied house offers copper piping waiting to be recast and ultimately reclaimed . Similarly , Gosling references the Heidelberg Project during the discussion , a community organization in the city 's McDougall-Hunt neighborhood , reimagining derelict buildings as giant canvases for budding artists . He recalls seeing `` one house covered with teddy bears , another covered in clocks ... people taking spaces and personalizing them . '' The city 's scope for urban renewal was clearly a draw . `` Something really interesting is happening in Detroit at the moment -- a rebirth . People redefining what they are , '' according to Gosling . `` There 's a resilience there and an energy , and it 's exciting . '' As much as the visual content of `` Lost River '' revolves around a maudlin preoccupation with dereliction -- and perhaps plays on the outside world 's perception of Detroit -- aspects of the narrative suggest hope and the possibility of reincarnation for the city . Gosling claims this paradox should exist when discussing Detroit , and is precisely what the film is trying to convey . `` We want people to know that dereliction is happening there , but that it 's not only what is happening there , '' he argues . `` It does n't define Detroit , it 's just part of what it 's dealing with right now . '' `` Lost River '' receives a limited theatrical release in the U.S. and UK on April 10 .
Ryan Gosling 's directorial debut , `` Lost River '' , is set in the city of Detroit .