The World to Come

In her second film, the Norwegian director uses the warm voice of Katherine Waterson to tell the story of a love that has no place—certainly not on the isolated 19th-century American farm where Abigail lives with her husband (Casey Affleck, who also produced the film). Since the death of their little daughter, they rarely speak to one another, filling their days instead with burdensome chores. The arrival of their new neighbor, Tallie (Vanesa Kirby, from The Crown) brings a little intimacy to Abigail’s lonely life. However, their husbands, jealous of their intimacy and increasingly annoyed by their prolonged visits, don’t like the bond that has been growing stronger between them over time. But Abigail can no longer be without Tallie, although the feelings she is experiencing are much easier to describe in her diary than to confess to another person, to the only one who understands her situation perfectly—just like the painter Marianne in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire looking at the likeness of the woman she loves.