One of our early favorites to seek out in the new year is The World to Come, Mona Fastvold’s long-awaited follow-up to her debut The Sleepwalker. Set in the 19th century in the American Northeast, the beautiful drama concerns a romance between Abigail (Katherine Waterston), a farmer’s wife, and her new neighbor Tallie (Vanessa Kirby). Also starring Casey Affleck and Christopher Abbott, the film is now set for a release next month via Bleecker Street (along with a VOD bow on March 2), and the first trailer has arrived.
Rory O’Connor said in his Venice review, “Shot on location using 16mm film––with Romania filling in for the frontier, as it did in Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers––André Chemetov’s rural’s vistas are as painterly as they are naturalistic. In particular, the early snow-swept sequences nod pleasingly towards Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Daniel Blumberg’s score—his first for a feature––is gentle and unobtrusive but powerfully moving when it needs to be. The sets feel lived in, Waterston and Kirby are immaculate, and Affleck and Abbott find interesting angles on what might have otherwise been archetypal roles.”
Watch the trailer below.
The World to Come opens in theaters on February 12 and digitally on March 2.