You Won’t Be Alone
April 01, 2022
· Focus Features
· 120 minutes
| |
Directed by: Goran Stolevski
· Written by: Goran Stolevski
· Cinematography: Matthew Chuang
· Editing: Luca Cappelli
· Costume Design: Sladjana Peric-Santrac
· Production Design: Bethany Ryan
· Music: Mark Bradshaw
In an isolated mountain village in 19th-century Macedonia, a young girl is taken from her mother and transformed into a witch by an ancient, shape-shifting spirit. Left to wander feral, the young witch beholds the natural world with curiosity and wonder. After inadvertently killing a villager and assuming her body, she continues to inhabit different people, living among the villagers for years, observing and mimicking their behavior until the ancient spirit returns, bringing them full circle.
Noomi Rapace (Bosilka), Alice Englert (Biliana), Anamaria Marinca (Maria), Félix Maritaud (Yovan), Sara Klimoska (Nevena), Arta Dobroshi (Stamena), Carloto Cotta (Boris), Verica Nedeska (Groom's Mother), Predrag Vasic (Groom), Marija Opsenica (Ur-Witch), Kamka Tocinovski (Yoana), Jasmina Avramovic (Bosilka's Mother-in-Law), Daniel Kovacevic (Biliana's Father), Senka Kolozova (Biliana's Grandmother), Djordje Misina (Miroslav), Irena Ristic (Elica), Veselina Mihajlovic (Midwife), Teodor Vincic (Vladimir), Danilo Savic (Young Yovan), Milena Nikolic (Wife of Boris), Viktorija Jakovljevic (Little Girls), Nikola Markovic (Groom's Father), Leontina Bainovic (Young Nevena), Artan Sadiku (Stamena's Husband), Anastasija Karanovich (Young Biliana), Sofija Jeremic (Biliana's Mother), Djordje Kocic (Woodcutter)
The debut feature of Australian-Macedonian writer-director Goran Stolevski, You Won’t Be Alone is wonderfully unlike any witch film you’ve seen. Its striking artistry and aestheticism blends supernatural horror (there’s no shortage of blood and entrails) with poetic fable, yielding a sensory meditation on life that is unexpectedly emotional and profoundly humanistic. Even the malevolent ancient spirit, born of suffering and loneliness, is a contoured character. And the young witch (played by multiple actors, including Noomi Rapace, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta, and Sara Klimoska) suggests a transcendent spirit who, across successive lives – woman, man, mother, child – experiences what it means to be human. “You Won’t Be Alone” celebrates its world-premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2022.
