The trailer has been released forStrange Way of Life. Set to premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the short comes from filmmakerPedro Almódovar(Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,Talk to Her) and starsPedro Pascal(The Mandalorian,The Last of Us) andEthan Hawke(Moon Knight,The Northman) as two gunslingers falling in love in the Old West. Sneak peek images and a poster have previously been released, and now the first footage for the film is here with the new trailer. You can watch the video for the film, which will also be a MUBI release, below.
The short features Pascal as Silva, a gunslinger who travels through the desert to reunite with his old friend, Sheriff Jake (Hawke), after 25 years. While the new trailer teases some tensions between the two upon their meeting, with Silva accusing Jake of “never loving anyone,” there are hints of how steamy things will get between them as well.
“Years ago, you asked me what two men could do living together on a ranch. I’ll answer you now,” Pascal’s Silva says while serving as a caregiver for an injured Sheriff Jake.
Strange Way of Lifeis in part a romance story, but Almódovar wants people to know that it’s also very much like classic Western films, sharing many of the same elements. The filmmaker says that what really sets this short apart from the pack is primarily the dialogue, noting how the words spoken by these characters are unlike what you’d see in any other film.
“It’s a queer Western, in the sense that there are two men and they love each other,” he said on Dua Lipa’sAt Your Servicepodcast, per theGay Times. “It’s about masculinity in a deep sense because the Western is a male genre. What I can tell you about the film is that it has a lot of the elements of the Western. It has the gunslinger, it has the ranch, it has the sheriff, but what it has that most Westerns don’t have is the kind of dialogue that I don’t think a Western film has ever captured between two men.”
Related:Strange Way of Life: Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal Wrap Filming in Spain on Gay Western Short
Strange Way of Life’s Director Turned Down Brokeback Mountain
The short has drawn some comparisons to the 2003 filmBrokeback Mountainbecause of its romance between cowboys. Ang Lee directed that film, though Almodóvar was first given the offer before turning it down. Almodóvar says that, at that time, he would have been too limited by the studio with how he’d want to approach such a project. That includes making the sex scenes more “animalistic,” perhaps teasing what we can expect fromStrange Way of Life, where he’s had total creative control.
“I think Ang Lee made a wonderful movie, but I never believed that they would give me complete freedom and independence to make what I wanted,” Almodóvar told IndieWire.
After the short screens at Cannes,Strange Way of Lifewill be distributed by MUBI in Italy and Latin America, while Pathé will distribute in the UK. Information on a U.S. release date hasn’t yet been announced.
