Jessica Chastain embarks on an ambitious journey in a new trailer for Susanna White’s “Woman Walks Ahead.” Based on a true story, the drama is set in the 1880s and sees her playing Catherine Weldon, a widowed artist from New York who travels to Fort Yates, North Dakota to paint a portrait of Chief Sitting Bull (Michael Greyeyes).
“Very few unaccompanied ladies travel beyond Omaha,” she’s told on the train. Catherine receives a number of patronizing warnings from white men about her plans to “paint Indians,” and is even spat on. The racism and prejudice towards the Native American community is clear.
The spot features a glimpse into Catherine’s first interaction with Sitting Bull. She details her trip to Fort Yates in grandiose, poetic language, and without skipping a beat he responds, “You got a train from New York, right? Nice.” It’s clear that he doesn’t have time for her projections. Still, it’s not long before the two connect and confide in one another. Sitting Bull speaks to his assassination attempts, and Catherine shares, “The only battle I ever fought against is insignificance.”
“Woman Walks Ahead” takes place shortly before The Wounded Knee Massacre, which left more than 150 Lakota women, men, and children dead and 51 wounded at the hands of federal troops. The pic premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
White’s agent told her about the project because she was “looking for an epic love story — something in the tradition of films like ‘The English Patient,’ by Anthony Minghella. In fact, this isn’t a love story in a conventional sense at all — it is the story of two oppressed people giving each other hope,” she explained to us. “As soon as I read it I knew I had to make the film. It spoke to me so strongly. I grew up loving the epic landscape of Westerns. This is set in that world but you hear the stories of people you don’t normally hear in those narratives — the Native American community, and a strong woman. There’s also a very spiritual aspect to the movie that drew me — the sense that the land was there before any of us, and will be there after we have passed through it.”
“Our Kind of Traitor” and “Nanny McPhee Returns” are among White’s feature credits. She earned Emmy nods for directing HBO’s “Generation Kill” and BBC One’s “Jane Eyre.”
Chastain was last seen in “Molly’s Game.” She received Oscar nominations for “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Help.”
“Woman Walks Ahead” will make its U.S. debut at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 25 and hits theaters June 29.
