Slow West

Spotlight

New York Premiere

U.K., New Zealand | 84 MINUTES | English |

SLOW WEST

Drama, Action
Scottish director John Maclean makes his feature debut with this coming-of-age romance, by way of the classic American Western, as seen through the eyes of an outsider. Young Scottish aristocrat Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) travels to Colorado in search of his love, the evocatively named Rose Ross (Caren Pistorius). Woefully underprepared for the American frontier, he is saved on the trail by a road-weary traveller, Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender), who joins the quest as guide, protector, and, unbeknownst to Jay, bounty hunter with a sudden leg-up on the competition.

Fassbender and Smit-McPhee deliver magnetic performances as protagonists drifting between the contrary tides of hopeful determination and raw fatalism. Maclean adds to those conditions a thought-provoking mix of violence, black humor, sharp editing, and sumptuous landscape cinematography, with New Zealand serving as an admirable stand-in for the post-Civil War wilderness. Slow West becomes a taut critique of Manifest Destiny as a disruptive force, especially towards natives and immigrants finding themselves on the fringe of America’s drive for progress.

—Arthur Ryel-Lindsey

CAST & CREDITS

Directed by John Maclean

John Maclean, a former member of The Beta Band, quickly discovered his love for filmmaking with his first drama, Man on a Motorcycle, shot entirely on his mobile phone. Maclean's film Pitch Black Heist won the BAFTA award for Best Short.
Director
John Maclean
Screenwriter
John Maclean
Producer
Rachel Gardner, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Conor McCaughan
Editor
Roland Gallois, Jon Gregory A.C.E.
Cinematographer
Robbie Ryan
Executive Producer
Michael Fassbender, Katherine Butler, Zygi Kamasa
Cast
Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender, Ben Mendelsohn

CONTACTS

Print Source
John Heavey
A24
New York, NY 10001
Phone: 646 568 6015
heavey@a24films.com
International Sales Contact
Joanne Michael
HanWay Films
London,Phone: +44 020 7290 0750
jm@hanwayfilms.com
Press Contact
Noah Sacco
A24
New York, 10001
Phone: 646 568 6027
jeanie@a24films.com