I never imagined that this movie would leave me with a deep sadness when I finished watching it. It tells us a love story, but because of the circumstances, the time and the two characters that star in the romance, it was impossible to have a happy ending.

I've said it in previous posts, I'm becoming an overly sensitive person. I got a little depressed after watching the movie. I can only imagine how difficult it was for people in times past to discover, feel and express love for someone of the same gender.

Today, there are still prejudices and societies that condemn that two women or two men can love each other. We have progressed, especially in most Western countries, but there are still places in the world where they must hide, as they actually live in a cage.

Awe and joy, is something the protagonist of the story says, at an important moment in the film. That moment has stuck in my mind, because some time after that Astonishment and Joy, there is only room for sadness.

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In a town on the east coast of the United States in the mid-19th century, Dyer and Abigail are a married couple working on their farm, which doesn't produce enough money. They suffer the loss of a daughter, Nellie, to diphtheria, something that has plunged Abigail into deep sadness. She feels empty, watching her days pass in the monotony of a marriage and a life where there is no passion. Finney, a conservative and religious man, along with his beautiful wife Tallie, move to the neighboring farm. The two women strike up a friendship, Abigail will be impressed by Tallie and, as time goes by, it will be impossible to repress the love they feel for each other. The two women, trapped in their marriages, dream of being free, loving each other and knowing happiness. How long will they be able to be happy? How will they be able to free themselves?

The love story between two women, in an extremely conservative and religious era, both married to men accustomed to hard work, each trapped in the fate that befell her.

The film is visually beautiful, I was fascinated by the landscapes where the story takes place, both in the scenes that take place in winter and in summer. In every scene shot on location, it is impossible not to feel attraction for those vast landscapes, surrounded by forests and mountains.

But the magic is in the two protagonists, the two women who together find refuge, to forget for a while, all the unhappiness that weighs on them.

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Abigail is the one who narrates the story. She is the character who evolves the best. A woman who once had big dreams, is self-taught, likes to write, is very shy. The pain of losing her daughter and feeling that she no longer seems to matter to Dyer, will cause her to resign herself to living the life she has been given. Doing housework and keeping the farm accounts.

Like thousands of women in that environment, she has no choice but to accept that she will never achieve everything she dreamed of when she was younger. Married to a man she once thought she loved, but in reality still didn't know what it was like to truly feel in love.

Her voice-over is present throughout the film, it is the story of her life, which she tells us in fervent words. Captivating us when she manages to feel true love, in every gesture, in every look, she transmits us that amazement, joy and sadness that makes up that forbidden love.

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She is the opposite of Abigail, she is a more extroverted woman, she is more self-confident, ahead of her time. She is not shy, she is the one who takes the initiative, the one who takes the first step. Although she does not show or manifest what she feels openly, she has also discovered her true essence.

She is married to Finney, who is a religious and ungraceful farmer, but financially they are doing better than the rest. Tallie will let herself be carried away by passion and moments of happiness with Abigail, but in her eyes we can see that she is aware that it will be difficult for both of them to free themselves from the bonds of destiny.

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Dyer and Finney

The husbands of the protagonists of this romance. Each with different ways of looking at the world. They are secondary characters, but Dyer is the best developed, being a man of few words, but it seems to me that like Abigail, his heart is sad. Perhaps there is still some love for his wife, but he doesn't express it, he wanders through the story, like a farm animal, trapped in his world.

Finney was the character I liked the least, plus the actor playing him doesn't try very hard. Crude, conservative, a bit violent in temperament. He is the main threat to Abigail and Tellie's relationship.

It is for me, the most beautiful sequence in the whole film. The moment of the first kiss. Abigail and Tallie can no longer fight what they feel. Abigail is the one who reacts with more astonishment, because she thought that Tellie didn't feel the same as her. Very well shot scene, it manages to convey what we have all felt at some time, when we fall in love with someone and give that first kiss, which triggers so many sensations in us.

Abigail defines it as Astonishment and Joy, after years of calamities, in that moment she feels happiness. How long will that happiness last? That's what I asked myself in the final shot of that scene.

Who directs the film? Source Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold is in charge of directing, this being her second film as a director. She debuted in 2014 with the film The Sleepwalker, with which she participated in the Sundance Film Festival. This time she offers us an impeccable work, with an elegant use of framing and smooth camera movements, subtly conveying the love and passion of the story. I really enjoyed the direction, it has been seven years since her first film, it has taken her a long time to return to directing, but she is also a writer and actress. During all this time she has been involved in other projects. She wrote the screenplay and acted in the film Voz Lux, with Natalie Portman. She is co-author of the film The Childhood of a Leader and is currently in pre-production on a TV series. The filmmaker is Norwegian, but lives in the United States.