Directed by: Francesca Comencini  |  Written by: Leonardo Fasoli, Maddalena Ravagli

Official synopsis: Sarah makes a life-saving discovery for the finances of New Babylon: the city’s basements are full of oil. With John, she pushes the door of the bank of Elmdale to finance a drill. They incur the wrath of Elizabeth Thurmann, the local potentate, who is preparing an ambush.

I’m a big Western fan. I grew up watching “Dancing with Wolves” and “The Last Mohican”, like over and over, obsessive. And I always wanted to do a Western. But it’s hard, most of the time the female character would be quite shallow, or, it’s the prostitute, or the wife, or the girl that needs to be saved, who got kidnapped. So, I’ve been offered a few Westerns, but this was the first time where the character had layers and was a human with lots of colors. (Noomi Rapace, KinoTV Denmark, July 04, 2023)

Sarah comes across a fallen horse. She comforts it before putting the poor creature out of its misery, putting a bullet in its head. Sarah smells its blood after, sensing something not quite right. Sarah returns and confronts John Ellis, who’s still torn up over her abandoning him at their wedding. The pair ride together out of New Babylon to Elmsdale City, walking hand in hand to the bank. They need money after the stranger (Django) defeated Isaac and put them in debt. Ellis offers the bank manager a deal – oil for parts of his land. Ellis promises that there’s plenty more underground and can make him a lot of money, all he’s asking for is an extension of $2000. Ellis reassure that he’s not just any man and will make good on this deal, even offering all their land if he’s wrong. Ellis has a deed for the land to certify everything too, which seems to do the trick with the bank manager. He promises to have Ellis and Sarah their money by Friday.

Elsewhere in town, Elizabeth catches wind of the deal going down and rallies the troops, eventually leading to a big shootout in the streets. It’s Django that manages to distract them all long enough to help turn the tide though, but Ellis also hesitates when faced with shooting Elizabeth. Tellingly, she too hesitates before dispersing. In the ensuing carnage, Django and Sarah lock eyes, prompting further flashbacks that flesh out more of Django and Sarah’s history, including how the latter actually shot an Indian and saved Django’s life. Off the back of this, Ellis and all his men break into the bank manager’s house and take the keys, intent on stealing the money and realizing they were never going to give this over without a fight. They return the bag of cash to New Babylon, much to the jubilation of the crowd. While everyone cheers, Django catches a moment with Sarah alone. She’s not happy, shocked that “they’re all dead”. She urges him to go West and forget about her but he refuses. Sarah is quick to point out that John Ellis will kill Django if he finds out that he’s from the south. However, our calm and collected stranger is confident it won’t come to that.

Sarah promises Django that she will marry John, given he was there for her that night when he wasn’t. She points a gun at his head and tells him to leave but he calls her bluff, telling her to shoot. He also confirms that he’s her father too, in a neat bit of dialogue. Sarah can’t pull the trigger, naturally, and eventually turns to leave. In Elmsdale, Elizabeth rallies the townsfolk, promising that they’ll fight back and destroy what needs to be destroyed. According to them, John Ellis only has darkness and bitterness in his heart and that needs to be eradicated. After proving himself in the field of battle, John Ellis allows Django to stick around in New Babylon, telling him he’s free to make a home for himself there if he wants. There are rules of course, which includes handing over his gun and abiding by the New Babylon rules. Sarah is not happy with John Ellis’ decision but the latter believes the new stranger will come in useful for them further down the line. As for Elizabeth, she continues to slip down the path of craziness, fanatically praying in the bath.