It’s safe to say that Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain changed the way we look at American Westerns. What it also did was open up the number of stories that could be told in that genre. Pedro Almódovar, one of the best filmmakers in the world, is taking a stab at a Brokeback-style Western with Strange Way of Life, a short film that pairs up Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal. Gee, what’ve those two guys ever done?
Premiering at Cannes, Strange Way of Life is a Western about a sheriff and an old rancher friend who fall in love after years of having their lives intertwined.
Also in the cast are Pedro Casablanc, Manu Ríos, George Steane, José Condessa, Jason Fernández, Sara Sálamo, Ohiana Cueto, and Daniela Medina.
Strange Way of Life will get wider distribution later this year courtesy of MUBI.
“A man rides a horse across the desert that separates him from Bitter Creek. He comes to visit Sheriff Jake. Twenty-five years earlier, both the sheriff and Silva, the rancher who rides out to meet him, worked together as hired gunmen. Silva visits him with the excuse of reuniting with his friend from his youth, and they do indeed celebrate their meeting, but the next morning Sheriff Jake tells him that the reason for his trip is not to go down the memory lane of their old friendship….”
