One of the best aspects of Netflix is that it allows filmmakers to showcase their work on a global platform. An aspect that attracted director Jeremy Saulnier to the streaming service for this latest film “Hold the Dark.” Saulnier burst onto the indie film scene with the fantastic “Blue Ruin” followed by the equally great “Green Room.” The making of “Green Room” was so claustrophobic and constrained that Saulnier wanted to break out and take in the sights for “Hold the Dark.”
“There’s scenes in the Iraq War. There’s a lot of outback Alaskan landscapes. There’s aerial sequences. We’re dealing with bison and lynxes and wolves and all kinds of creatures. That was great to not build a contained environment and really milk it for all it’s worth like I did in ‘Green Room,’ but really bend my will around the landscape and the needs of the animals and to keep it very grounded and realistic…”
Taking up screenwriting duties is “I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore” director and writer Macon Blair. Blair and Saulnier have been longtime friends and have collaborated on all three of Saulnier’s previous directorial efforts.
The official synopsis and trailer can be checked out below.
Retired naturalist and wolf expert Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) journeys to the edge of civilization in northern Alaska at the pleading of Medora Slone (Riley Keough), a young mother whose son was killed by a pack of wolves. As Core attempts to help Medora track down the wolves who took her son, a strange and dangerous relationship develops between the two lonely souls. But when Medora’s husband Vernon (Alexander Skarsgård) returns home from the Iraq War, the news of his child’s death ignites a violent chain of events. As local cop, Donald Marium (James Badge Dale), races to stop Vernon’s vengeful rampage, Core is forced on a perilous odyssey into the heart of darkness.
“Hold the Dark” premieres at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival before its Netflix release on September 28.