The movie
The World to Come
Somewhere along the mid-19th century American East Coast frontier, two neighboring couples battle hardship and isolation, witnessed by a splendid yet testing landscape, challenging them both physically and psychologically.
Length: 105 min
Country: United States of America
Language spoken: English
Language subtitles: Dutch
Cast: Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby, Karina Ziana Gherasim, Casey Affleck, Christopher Abbot
Director: Mona Fastvold
Release date: 2020
Description
Harsh upstate New York in the 1850s serves as the backdrop for director Mona Fastvold’s beguiling tale of burgeoning lesbian love between Tallie and Abigail, two married farmer’s wives, played beautifully by Vanessa Kirby and Katherine Waterston, respectively. Winner of the Queer Lion at last year’s Venice Film Festival, Fastvold’s drama unspools (literally: it was shot on film) with a sense of joy as the two women, Abigail introverted and literary, Tallie flame-haired and outgoing, find comfort in each other while their dullard husbands (Casey Affleck, who also produced, and Christopher Abbott) tend to their farming duties…
‘Spellbinding… A ravishingly beautiful love story set in 1850s America, with painterly visuals that nod to the work of Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent… “The World to Come” is crafted with care by the Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold, lovingly built on ground previously settled by Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”… Kirby gives a fine, charismatic turn as the free-spirited Tallie. But it’s Waterston’s quieter, more calibrated performance that holds the film together—and her poetic narration that shapes our sense of the tale.’—Xan Brooks, The Guardian
‘Spellbinding… A ravishingly beautiful love story set in 1850s America, with painterly visuals that nod to the work of Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent… “The World to Come” is crafted with care by the Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold, lovingly built on ground previously settled by Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”… Kirby gives a fine, charismatic turn as the free-spirited Tallie. But it’s Waterston’s quieter, more calibrated performance that holds the film together—and her poetic narration that shapes our sense of the tale.’—Xan Brooks, The Guardian
