🎬 The World to Come

Set during a brutal, freezing winter in 1856 along the rugged, isolated frontier of upstate New York, the film tracks the bleak, routine life of Abigail (Katherine Waterston). Abigail is a quiet, literate farmer’s wife who lives in a fractured, emotionally distant marriage with her husband Dyer (Casey Affleck). The couple is deeply trapped in a silent state of mourning following the tragic death of their young daughter from diphtheria. Abigail documents her profound loneliness, inner thoughts, and the harsh realities of farm life through meticulous, poetic daily journal entries.

Her isolated world shifts dramatically with the arrival of new neighbors: a charismatic, red-haired woman named Tallie (Vanessa Kirby) and her controlling, deeply insecure husband Finney (Christopher Abbott). Abigail and Tallie are instantly drawn to one another, finding a powerful intellectual and emotional refuge from their stifling, patriarchal marriages. As the seasons transition from harsh winter into spring, their frequent visits evolve into a passionate, deeply intimate sapphic romance. However, their newfound paradise is cut short as both husbands begin to notice the intense connection between their wives. The narrative builds to a devastating, heartbreaking turn as Finney abruptly forces Tallie to move far away, forcing Abigail to brave the unforgiving landscape to find her love, leading to a hauntingly bittersweet conclusion about the permanence of memory and female desire.

💡 Did you know?
The Romanian Wilderness: To authentically capture the vast, untouched, and brutally primitive landscape of 1850s New York, director Mona Fastvold bypassed America entirely. The production team shot the film on location in a remote, rural valley within the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, enduring real, freezing blizzards and extreme weather conditions to ground the performances in absolute realism.

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