THE DEAD DON’T HURT is set in the 1860s in the American West. Weston Jeffries (Solly McLeod), the son of the richest man in the area, comes out of a saloon. He committed a massacre and shot many people. Meanwhile, Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen), the sheriff, is burying his wife Vivienne (Vicki Krieps).

Viggo Mortensen tells the story of Vivienne and Holger on several time levels. They meet in San Francisco, where the French-Canadian is bored of being the mistress of a rich Englishman. She sees the Dane leaning on a wagon and approaches him. For their first date, she drags him to a painting exhibition that her British ex is holding at his house. The disheveled Olsen definitely does not belong to the world of bourgeois European art, neither does Vivienne. Together they move to the Oregon mountains. Olsen's dreary cabin gradually becomes a home covered in roses and bougainvillea. The story of two wayward outsiders trying to live a quiet life with few ambitions (a barn of their own would be nice) takes a bad turn when Olsen decides to enlist in the Union Army during the Civil War. Vivienne stays behind alone, works in the saloon, and the psychopath Weston becomes more and more pushy.

Viggo Mortensen tells a story of revenge and forgiveness, violence and domination, and primarily about the self-assertion of his female characters. Vivienne remains an independent, confident woman. Vicki Krieps portrays her with seething anger and inner calm. Her smile lights up the screen, her cold, hateful gaze leaves no room for dissent. Viggo Mortensen's second film as director, lead actor, and score composer shows that he is a filmmaker to be reckoned with in the future.

Tom Dorow

Translation: Elinor Lewy