Viggo Mortensen's Feminist Western at Rome Film Fest 2024

Viggo Mortensen presents his second feature film 'The Dead Don't Hurt' at the 2024 Rome Film Festival, where he will also receive a career award on October 18, 2024, at the Sala Petrassi in Auditorium di Roma. The film reexamines the Western genre through a feminist lens, focusing on the story of a Danish immigrant named Olsen (played by Mortensen) and a Franco-Canadian woman, Vivienne (Vicky Krieps). Vivienne is introduced as a child discussing Joan of Arc with her mother, establishing her as a woman who fights for different reasons than men. The narrative is non-linear and follows their meeting at a market after Vivienne rejects a wealthy Irishman's advances. Olsen, a gentle man with strong moral principles, leaves to fight in the Civil War against slavery, abandoning Vivienne in a dusty, rocky place she tries to beautify. During his absence, she works at a saloon and is raped by Weston, the arrogant son of landowner Jeffries, resulting in a facial scar and a child. The film critiques frontier mythology by focusing on two immigrants as outsiders. However, the pacing is slow and the ideas are not particularly innovative, lacking psychological depth in its characters. The article is written by Carlotta Petracci for Artribune.