Dusk (2023 film)
| Dusk Blostlandic: Skymning | |
|---|---|
| The Montecara Film Festival edition of the movie poster for Dusk, depicting a woman with a rifle superimposed in front of a setting sun, with rock formations along the bottom. Blostlandic-language limited release poster | |
| Directed by | Danel Frosch |
| Written by | Danel Frosch |
| Produced by | Danel Frosch |
| Starring | Ellie Hansen |
| Music by | Vilhelm Ulfsson |
Production company | |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 117 minutes |
| Country | Eldmark |
| Language | Blostlandic |
| Box office | €93,000,000 |
Skymning is a 2023 Eldmarsk Frontier action drama film written and directed by Danel Frosch, his first film with Onyx Entertainment. Starring Ellie Hansen, Jan Quist, Per von Kolreuth, Tone Linderoth, Ingvar Ytter, Magnus Hirsch, Emanuel Wallenberg, and Petr Hansen, the film was very loosely inspired by the sometimes larger than life outlaws of the Eldmarsk Frontier, notably the real-life criminal duo of Karl and Jen Ulfblad, and follows Kassie Ossler, an unnassuming homesteader and farmer, who is caught in the dilemma of harboring a mysterious wounded fugitive and protecting her son and her home from outlaws, and her past life as a criminal running with the gang's leader, hired by a crooked and affluent cattle baron.
The film will premeire at the 84th Montecara Film Festival on October 25th, 2023, where it will be considered for a béco aùreo.
It will recieve a release in Eldmarsk cinemas on November 3rd, and a global release on November 10th.
Plot
It is 1883, and the frontier of Eldmark is desolate, but order and progress is arriving all the same. At the crossroads of two trade routes, there is an adobe cabin and farm, wherein resides Kassie, an unassuming homesteader and farmer, where she lives with her teenage son Erik. After Erik leaves the house to tend to the goats outside, he notices a speck of black in an otherwise bleached landscape, slowly coming closer. Eventually, the speck reveals itself to be a pale horse and rider, a badly wounded man unconscious on the saddle. Coming to a stop at the crossroads, he slumps off and into the dust. Erik, alerting his mother, drags the man inside and places him on a bed, where we see he is shot three times. Erik leaves to get his horse in the stable, while Kassie tends to his wounds, bandaging them and packing the wounds with gauze. Notably, she disarms him, taking his gun and putting it on the windowsill.
After a while, the man stirs, and violently wakes and lunges for her, forcing Kassie on the ground. A struggle ensues, Gabriel reaching for the gun on the windowsill above him, and Kassie hits him in the head with a frying pan that fell from the stove hook from the fighting, knocking him out again. She pulls him back into the bed, and then ties his wrists to the bed frame with twine. Erik returns and questions his mother about the mess, but she quickly dismisses it, telling him to ride into the nearby town of Vallgraven to get Doctor Nilssen. Begrudgingly, he quickly leaves, leaving Kassie alone with the man again. She walks into her bedroom, prying open a false panel in the wall. In the wall, there is a canvas flour bag, a picture of her and her late husband, a couple of leather-bound journals, and newspaper clippings from 1869, on which lay the headlines “BANK RÅNAD, MAN SKÖD.” Foreign releases have subtitles that state “Bank robbed, Man shot.”
Time passes, and as Erik rides west to the town, he notices a circle of condors in the distance, just off the road. Nearing their afternoon meal, he spots a dead horse and a dying man, the latter of which begging him for some water. Panicking, Erik reaches for his canteen and hands it to the man, who drinks it all before coughing up blood. He, revealing his name to be Ezra, confesses that he was from Visby, over 70 kilometers away, and had just robbed a bank before taking off with his brother from his co-conspirators with the entire amount. He said that his brother had it, and that he was going to meet up with him, but his legs were broken by his horse falling on him, and his hands were shot up. He revealed that the outlaws he rode with chased him for half the day, and both of them were wounded, though he joked that his brother “fared better than I did.” After a moment of silence and reflection, he pleaded with Erik to put him out of his misery, handing him his revolver. Erik trembled and was unable to do it, and quickly left the scene on muleback. As he and his mule galloped to Vallgraven, a shot rang out from Ezra’s position.
The scene changes to Kassie and the man, who is stirring awake again, only to struggle against his bindings. Kassie points the revolver at him and asks him to identify himself. He resists at first but then states that he was sent after a gang who had just robbed a bank in Visby. Kassie doesn’t believe him, but he told her to check his pocket, wherein was in fact a warrant signed by Judge Orsson of Visby. She wasn’t convinced, but agreed to untie him. He apologized for attacking her, and that he can’t feel one of his legs anymore. Kassie replied that it was likely fatal had they not intervened, and that she had sent for the doctor. Kassie began questioning him, but through questioning it seems to suggest she doesn’t believe him. Thinking that getting him drunk would let the truth spill out, she pours both of them a glass of Brandvatt, and the scene cuts away.
The scene switches again to Erik arriving in town. Vallgraven is typically a desolate town, but with the arrival of cattle drive season, it is filled with cowboys and migrant workers who typically travel with them, such as prostitutes and sutlers. After nearly getting robbed and solicited in the same few minutes of entering the town, he ran to the doctor who was notably missing. His assistant, a girl named Asa, explains that he’s at the Dahlgren Ranch, tending to someone who was apparently shot by a disgruntled cowhand. Erik pleads with Asa to come with him to treat the man at his house who was “shot to pieces.” Asa first declines, but eventually agrees, and they ride back to Kassie’s farm. As they do so, the camera pans and reveals a silhouette of a man, seemingly listening the whole time.
Meanwhile, Gabriel and Kassie are seemingly in better spirits, half a bottle later, though Kassie’s suspicions are still apparent, as she had so far remained sober, while Gabriel was seemingly a lightweight. He had switched from talking about Visby to sobbing about his family, his mother, and his brother, who was with him last night when they were ambushed by the robbers, but the story wasn’t adding up. As Gabriel began to notice that she wasn’t believing him, he suddenly broke an awkward silence by asking her about her time in Visby. He claimed that he did know of a woman named Kassie, since he was a child, and that she just left town the night that the train station caught on fire. She dismissed the claim, saying that she left on a stagecoach, to find a better paying job in the next cow town. For once, it was Gabriel who was skeptical about Kassie. After an awkward silence, his eyes meet a picture on the wall, another picture of Kassie and her late husband. He asks about him, and she replies that he died of black lung. He remarks that he looked familiar. She shrugs it off again, saying that perhaps the world wasn’t so big after all.
The scene switches again, this time to a completely different character, the silhouette of the man from earlier, arriving at Dahlgren Ranch, where it is revealed that the man was working for Hjalmar Dahlgren, a prominent ranch boss who has been keeping Vallgraven under his tyrannical thumb for years. A brief conversation ensues, in which the man tells Hjalmar that they know where the money was taken, and that “rat bastard Gabe was holed up at the Old Place.” Hjalmar scoffs and tells the man, identified as Mikael, to take care of it, and that the Visby score was all they needed for their plan to succeed, and that Visby was Mikael’s idea, so if it failed because of the Blom brothers, it was completely on him. It is revealed that the Dahlgren family had been hiring thugs to rob others in the past, and the reputation of Hjalmar and his family, as well as buying out sheriffs and marshals, was what was allowing him to get away with it. The scene ends with a crew of 10 mounting their horses and riding, their backs to the sunset, towards Kassie’s farmhouse.
Meanwhile, Erik and Asa arrive at the farm, and Asa rushes in to tend to Gabriel’s wounds. She remarks that his leg was fractured, and that it would become infected, and that he would surely die a painful, agonizing death, unless they amputate the leg to the knee. Gabriel is upset, but agrees to do it. Asa remarks that she doesn’t know how to do it, but Kassie volunteers. Gabriel remarks that it’s strange how Kassie knew how to perform an amputation, but she brushes it off with that she was a nurse, and that she's done it before, once, but it was unsuccessful. As it was the best option they had, Gabriel agrees. The process is gruesome, and Gabriel downs the rest of the Brandvatt in preparation. Erik holds him down while Asa hands Kassie the saw. Gabriel survives but is unconscious from the pain.
They don’t have much time to rest, however, because Erik hears horse hooves in the dirt outside, and a loud voice in the dusk. Telling Erik to wait, Kassie goes into the bedroom, grabs the hidden revolver, and walks outside, to find Mikael standing there. Mikael recognizes her immediately and is taken aback, as he thought Kassie, or, more appropriately, his old boss, was dead. She initially denies it but admits that she had faked her death, stating that after Jan died, there was nothing to return to. Mikael calls her a traitor, that she left the gang and took the Visby train score with her, and now he was here to stop her from harboring another traitor like herself. Erik hears this from inside the house and charges out of the house himself with Gabriel’s revolver in hand. Mikael taunts him, saying that his mother was both a criminal and a whore. He is conflicted, feeling betrayed by not knowing about her past all this time, and accused her of lying to him. She tells him to go inside, that this was all her fault, and that she should have been more honest from the get-go. She then tells him that it was up to him whether to forgive her or not, she could never forgive herself for the things that she had done, and that she had prayed that if she could raise her son to be a man of peace, she could forgive herself. His hand trembles around the revolver, conflicted by his emotions, but shakily he pulls back the hammer and points it at Mikael. Mikael laughs, taunting him and calling him a coward, only for Erik to shoot him squarely in the head, falling off his horse in a slump.
In disbelief in the event that had just occurred, everyone froze for a time, before one gang member shouted, and the gunfight ensued after. Kassie shot two of them in rapid succession while forcing both of them inside. Kassie ordered Erik to bar the door while Asa went and grabbed a lever action from above the fireplace, as well as a double barrel shotgun from the corner of another room. Gabriel stirred awake and quickly reached for his gun, only to not find it. Panicking, he tried to get up, but Kassie forced him back down. Taking the lever action, Kassie gave Erik her revolver, taking some time during the shooting to again apologize and make up. The gang tried several tactics to force their way into the house. One gang member tried to sneak onto the roof, while in another attempt they set fire to a wagon and pushed it into the front door. Asa stopped one with both barrels of a shotgun, while Gabriel struggled with one member that jumped through the window. Gabriel learned in the struggle that the gang found Ezra rotting in the desert headless, and that he was next if he didn’t tell him where the gold was. Gabriel managed to knock him out with the frying pan before stabbing him.
By morning, the house was a burned out hull, and all but one of the gang members were dead, including Gabriel, taking the secret of where the bank money was hiding with him. He died smiling, after saving Asa from the house fire, taking a round to the chest in the process. One gang member managed to escape in the fight, unbeknownst to those in the house. Erik was shot, and attempted to hide the wound from Kassie, as they walked back to the house. The secret panel in the smoldering home survived, and opening it for Erik, she said she wanted him to have what was in it, including his father’s diary, her pictures, the newspaper clippings, and the bag, which contained all that was left from the Train heist. She apologized again, saying that she had tried to live an honest life, and regretted that all she could give him was from the life of crime she left behind. She remarked how Jan was a good man, and that all he wanted to do was pay off his debts and retire as a rancher. She told him the real story of his death, that he was shot in the leg while robbing an armored wagon, and she had tried to save him from getting an infection by amputating it, but he bled out. She blamed herself for it, and ran off. They hugged, and Erik forgave her, while away from the house. It was then that she noticed he was bleeding in the stomach. By the time she did, he had slumped over and collapsed practically in her arms. Asa rushed over, and did what she could with what she had, but urged them to go to the town, while Asa would ride to the Dahlgren Ranch and get the doctor.
The three of them, left with little time, ride into the sunrise towards Vallgraven, but a surprise is waiting for them. Atop the hill, Kassie could see that Dahlgren had assembled the rest of his men, at least another ten, and were waiting for her in a mostly deserted town, the townsfolk hiding in their houses. Facing immediate gunfire, they veered off the road to hide in the doctor’s office. The scene switches to Asa’s perspective, where Asa stumbles upon a lightly guarded Dahlgren Ranch, where Dr. Eberg was locked behind a makeshift cell in the cellar. Asa managed to sneak past one guard and attempt to free the Doctor, but by chance, one guard walked into the room just as she began to look for a key. Asa manages to catch two in the doorway with her shotgun, but one tackles her to the ground, Dr. Eberg powerless to stop him. After an intense struggle, Asa manages to stab the man with his own boot knife. Asa frees the Doctor with a key she found on the dead guard. They are both wordless.
Asa arrives with Dr. Eberg without much else issue. Asa and Kassie make a stand as the Doctor attempts to work on Erik, and Kassie leaves the relative safety of the office to attempt to take on Dahlgren. Calling him out, Hjalmar obliges, but only after the rest of his men either died or fled, taunting her regardless and demanding to know where the money is. He claims he told everyone of who they were, and that they weren’t safe anywhere in Eldmark anymore, that every marshal east of the Ryggrad would be out for her head. But if she gave up the location of the treasure, he’d get her passage out of the country. She states that his boys killed the last man who knew about it, and he was going to pay for the damage he had caused to her boy. Facing down each other for what seemed to be a duel, Dahlgren instead cracks under the pressure and surrenders, pleading for mercy. Walking up to him, Kassie kneels next to him and puts the gun to his head, but decides against killing him. She takes his derringer and tosses it across the dusty street. As soon as that happened, people from the town slowly left their dwellings and gathered in a circle around Hjalmar. Kassie turned and walked back to the doctor’s office, who was successful in removing the bullet from Erik’s abdomen. Dr. Eberg remarks that it’s probably still not safe in the country, and Kassie agrees, stating that she has old friends in the Vänjer Country. The duo then ride off into the midday sun, to start another life elsewhere.
Cast
- Ellie Hansen as Kassie Ossler
- Jan Quist as Erik Ossler
- Per von Kolreuth as Gabriel Blom
- Tone Linderoth as Asa Skepp
- Ingvar Ytter as Ezra Blom
- Magnus Hirsch as Hjalmar Dahlgren
- Emanuel Wallenberg as Mikael Haraldsen
- Petr Hansen as Dr. Johannes Eberg
Cast notes:
- Filli the cat, famous for the 2021 blockbuster Kattern, makes an appearance in the background as Erik is talking to Ezra Blom.
- Gabriella Akesson and Olov Akesson, both sound engineers at Onyx Entertainment, appear in pictures as young Kassie and Jan Ossler.
- The Eldmarsk Frontiermen Historical Society provided several reeanactors to serve as extras for the town of Vallgraven and some members of Dahlgren's gang.
Production
Development, writing, and casting
Ellie Hansen was approached in the winter of 2021 after the successful release of Kattern, in which she was considered for the role of the Headmistress, but turned it down to pursue the 6th season of Blod. Director Danel Frosch, after Lugna Ltd. was bought out by Onyx Entertainment, retained his roles, and wrote Dusk specifically with Ellie in mind. "I wouldn't even consider another person for the role." After receiving the offer for the film scheduled to release in 2023, she initially hesitated but Frosch was able to modify the development period to adapt to Hansen's schedule. Therefore, the film took an additional estimated three months of development in pre-production. Hansen, who had similar roles in Young Guns, Ojo, and various TV shows, was already well accustomed to handling guns in her role as an actress, and took the additional time to research her role, how her character would shoot, move, and think. To better train her body for the role, she collaborated with the Eldmarsk Frontiermen Historical Society to spend one month living life working as an 1880s farmhand. She said in an interview "Living with the Society changed me, in a way. I will never look at my dinner the same way again."
Hansen personally picked Jan Quist as Erik. "I couldn't really pick anyone else. Jan looks a lot like my son when he was at that age." Danel Frosch additionally wanted to cast Linus Haglund for the role of Hjalmar Dahlgren, but scheduling conflicts and Linus's declining health prompted for Magnus Hirsch, who was sarcastically recommended by Linus as a "decent second to my greatness."
Filming and cinematography
The film was shot entirely on location in the Gyllenedal National Park, during the summer of 2022. The production crew was tasked with the near impossible goal of building a realistic town in 46°C temperatures in the spring prior, and many buildings were instead built offsite and brought in for filming. The Ossler house was a park ranger station built in 1910, and was abandoned before being renovated and used for filming. It has since been regularly staffed as a ranger cabin and interpretation center.
Frosch stated that in this film, "the takes are longer than any other film I've recorded," and stated that "He wanted to capture the beauty in the desolation, and allow long takes to allow the viewer to drink in every facial expression and moment for introspection."
Music and sound design
Vilhelm Ulfsson composed the score for Dusk, enlisting the help of Stomping Ground Studios for recording and mastering. The soundtrack also features production and arrangement by Oskar Grimm, Harald Grundy, and over 110 musicians, including the Ytterholm Symphonic Orchestra. In composing the sountrack, Ulfsson drew direct inspiration from Frontier films in the past, while additionally drawing influence from the surrounding nature of the film. "I took recordings from sandstorms in the area, the crowing of birds, the gentle strum of the wind. The music is an amplifier to the wilderness."
The New Frontier and Which Way is East? released on September 30th, 2023, while the rest of the soundtrack will release simultaneously with the premiere at the 84th Montecara Film Festival.
| The Music of Dusk | |
|---|---|
| File:Skymningsoundtrack.png | |
| Soundtrack album by | |
| Released | October 25th, 2023 |
| Recorded | 2022–2023 |
| Studio | Stomping Ground, Hammarvik |
| Genre | Soundtrack |
| Length | tbd |
| Label | Onyx Entertainment |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The New Frontier" | 3:15 |
| 2. | "Dust in the Cornmeal" | 4:41 |
| 3. | "A Pale Rider" | 3:10 |
| 4. | "Delirium" | 4:30 |
| 5. | "On No Uncertain Terms" | 4:27 |
| 6. | "Ezra" | 6:41 |
| 7. | "Gone for Lunch" | 3:51 |
| 8. | "Consolation Pride" | 2:30 |
| 9. | "Many Questions" | 3:40 |
| 10. | "A Small World" | 4:47 |
| 11. | "The Lion's Den" | 4:49 |
| 12. | "Dust in the Sunset" | 4:58 |
| 13. | "The Art of Orthopedics" | 4:53 |
| 14. | "Mikael" | 3:52 |
| 15. | "Gabriel" | 3:12 |
| 16. | "Exit, Pursued by Fire" | 3:56 |
| 17. | "Confrontation" | 7:22 |
| 18. | "Which Way is East?" | 4:18 |
Historical Background
Dusk draws upon heavy historical influences from the time, including real-life outlaws such as Karl and Jen Ulfblad, who robbed the Bank of Ytterholm twice before escaping into the Asterian Federative Republic, where they were killed after attempting a train heist. Several historians and critics suggest that the events in the film were further inspired by the Vargberg Train Heist, in which one member of the gang hid in a farmhouse, whose inhabitants, Per and Bess Jorgensen, were unaware of his criminal status. For aiding him, they were arrested and sentenced to death, though they were acquitted on appeal. Additionally, Hjalmar Dahlgren's portrayal is intended to highlight the rampant corruption that was present at the time.
Release
Skymning will premiere on October 29th, 2023 at the 84th Montecara Film Festival. It will recieve a release in Eldmarsk cinemas on November 3rd, and a global release on November 10th.