What kind of film asks the audience to root for a slave owner? Daniel Barber's Civil War-era home invasion thriller The Keeping Room takes on that interesting challenge, and now we're getting a look at how he plans to pull that off. The film stars Brit Marling and Hailee Steinfeld as sisters, with Muna Otaru as one of their slaves, who must defend their home from a pair of rogue Union soldiers (one played by Sam Worthington) looking to cause some trouble. Here's the full synopsis:
In this radically reimagined American Western set towards the end of the Civil War, Southerner Augusta (Brit Marling, Arbitrage, The East) encounters two renegade, drunken soldiers (Sam Worthington, Avatar) who are on a mission of pillage and violence. After escaping an attempted assault, Augusta races back to the isolated farmhouse that she shares with her sister Louise (Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit, Pitch Perfect 2) and their female slave Mad (newcomer Muna Otaru.) When the pair of soldiers track Augusta down intent on exacting revenge, the trio of women are forced to take up arms to fend off their assailants, finding ways to resourcefully defend their home--and themselves--as the escalating attacks become more unpredictable and relentless.
So there's a lot more going on here than the typical home invasion film, and following on a string of positive reviews from the festival circuit The Keeping Room is one to keep an eye on. The film opens on September 25th.
