Pioneer Samuel Alabaster (Robert Pattinson) turns up in a dusty town in the Wild West, swarming with shady characters. He sets on a quest to rescue his fiancée, Penelope (Mia Wasikowska), from her kidnapper and brings along a man known as parson Henry (David Zellner) to marry them once he saves his belle. But nothing goes as planned, and the lines between the roles of the damsel in distress and hero become increasingly blurred. Damsel takes elements from the classical western genre and gives them a modern twist. Throw in the mix Tarantino-esque humour, a journey à la Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man and unpredictable plot twists typical of the Zellner brothers, and voilà: you get an explosive and delirious cocktail, an offbeat western far from anything you have ever seen before.
 
For over twenty years, the Zellner brothers, David and Nathan, have been offering some of the best of independent filmmaking. Features like Goliath, Kid-Thing and Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, screened at the Americana Film Festival in 2015, became innovative figures of indie cinema with their very distinctive style. With Damsel, the brothers pursue their filmmaking trajectory, surrounding themselves with accomplished actors such as Robert Pattinson (Good Time), Mia Wasikowska (Maps to the Stars) and silver screen legend, Robert Forster, in a brief but intense role. All this contributes to making Damsel one of the most awaited feature films of the year.
 
2018: Sundance Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, South by Southwest Film Festival