The director's fourth feature is taking part in the Venice Gap-Financing Market, running from Sept. 4 – 6 Swiss French filmmaker Ursula Meier (“The Line”) is prepping her long-gestating English-language debut, “Quiet Land,” a detective story-cum-romantic drama set in Big Sky country that she’ll be taking to the Venice Gap-Financing Market from Sept. 4 – 6. The film tells the story of respected Montana Highway Patrolman Connor McCluskey, an officer in his early seventies who, armed with his trusty analog camera, is investigating two puzzling fatal car crashes. Following a medical evaluation, he is dismissed from the force.
Concerned that Maggy Jones, a 70-year-old woman who owns land in the same area, may suffer the same fate, Connor continues his investigation on his own. Has he uncovered an inexplicable criminal plot, or is he slowly losing his mind? Her last film, “The Line,” competed for the Golden Bear at the 2022 Berlinale, where it was praised by Variety’s Peter Debruge as a “volatile yet sensitive portrait of a woman ordered to keep her distance from her family.” Meier’s latest is inspired by the work of Swiss police photographer Arnold Odermatt, who over a career spanning more than 40 years documented car accidents in striking, black-and-white analog photography.
Speaking to Variety from her home in Geneva, Meier said she’s long been “fascinated and captivated” by Odermatt’s arresting work. And also in the landscape. It’s very calm, surrounded by mountains,” she said.
There is nobody [in the frame]. It works like a movie,” she continued. You imagine the ‘script’ of the crash.
This idea crossed my mind and stayed with me.” In a director’s statement provided to Variety, Meier described being gripped by the idea of “turning that former police photographer into a fictional character, transposed onto American soil. The primary difference lies in the larger-than-life scale of the American landscape, as if urging us to surpass ourselves.” Speaking via Zoom, Meier opened up about how her long-running desire to make a movie in the U.S. got an assist from “X-Files” legend Gillian Anderson. What is truth?” the director asked.
This man dedicated his life to truth and justice. It’s an investigation about [what it means to be] human.” Though she initially conceived “Quiet Land” nearly a decade ago, Meier pressed pause on the project to begin production on her Golden Bear contender “The Line.” Now she’s fully thrown herself into researching her American crime story, even tagging along with the crash reconstruction unit of a highway patrol in North Dakota. It was fantastic.” Casting on “Quiet Land” is underway, with two A-list talents already attached.
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