Ein langer Winter

Winter is drawing near, and in the mountains of Colorado there is a stillness that has nothing peaceful about it. On a remote farm, Lester raises rabbits and chickens while his wife Louise dreams of another life. Their son Mike would like nothing more than for everything to stay as it is. But when the younger brother leaves for the Korean War and Louise vanishes into the gathering cold after an argument, the order so laboriously preserved collapses. Father and son search for her in vain. Then begins the long wait for the thaw.

In “Ein langer Winter”, the British director Andrew Haigh turns a story by the Irish writer Colm Tóibín into an unusual winter western in which the vastness of the Rocky Mountains becomes an icy trap. Louise’s absence changes everything: the father loses his authority, and Mike discovers, in meeting a young neighbour, a desire for which he has so far lacked the words. In other words: it is the catastrophe, of all things, that opens up to the men the possibility of another life. As in his impressive earlier films such as “45 Years” and “All of Us Strangers” (shown at 14 Films in 2024), Haigh is interested in what people keep from one another even when they love each other. His images preserve the beauty of a landscape that forgives nothing. “Ein langer Winter” is a film about the cruelty of waiting and about the uncertainty of loss.