Winter 1862. Amid the Civil War, the U.S. Army sent a company of volunteer soldiers to the western territories to patrol the uncharted borderlands. As their mission ultimately changes course, the meaning behind their engagement begins to elude them.
This is Minervini’s so-called first 'fiction,' where he gathered a group of nonprofessional actors, set them up with costumes and props on location in Montana, and then captured their improvised interactions within a broad narrative framework. The result lies somewhere between a restaging of a moment in America’s past and a document of present-day Americans reflecting on the process of nation-making.
All of Roberto Minervini’s films have premiered at either the Cannes or Venice film festivals. He is one of cinema's finest filmmakers and a master at balancing between fiction and documentary methods.
"Roberto Minervini’s documentary-like Civil War drama is a cold slog into hell and back." — David Ehrlich, Indiewire
In collaboration with the Bergen International Film Festival
