On Wednesday, Pedro Almodóvar’s queer Western romance Strange Way of Life released its first official trailer.
The Last Of Us star Pedro Pascal and Black Phone lead Ethan Hawke will co-star in the 30-minute picture. The short film highlights the conflicted romance between two cowboys after a two-decade reunion.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker provided a synopsis in a Cannes Film Festival interview. “After 25 years, Silva (Pascal) rides a horse across the desert to visit his friend Sheriff Jake (Hawke). They celebrate the meeting, but the next morning, Jake tells him that reason for his trip is not to go down the memory lane of their friendship.”
The trailer closes with Silva telling Jake, “Years ago, you asked me what two men could do living together on a ranch. I’ll answer you now.”
Almodóvar also spoke on the meaning behind the title, saying, “The strange way of life referred in the title alludes to the famous fado by Amalia Rodrigues, whose lyrics suggest that there is no stranger existence than the one that is lived by turning your back on your own desires.”
In an episode of Dua Lipa: At Your Service, Almodóvar said, “This is a queer Western in the sense that there are two men, and they love each other, and they behave in that situation in an opposite way.”
He continued, “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. And now I think I’m telling you too much.”
The short film is the director’s second English-language project after 2020’s The Human Voice starring Tilda Swinton.
Strange Way of Life is set to debut at the Cannes Film Festival this May. See Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke in the trailer up top.
