LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winner Kevin Costner brought his passion project "Horizon: An American Saga" to the big screen this summer. A labor of love since 1988, Costner wrote, produced, financed, starred in, and directed the film. His dedication paid off at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received an 11-minute standing ovation.
Despite a lukewarm international box office take, the second part of the saga is on the horizon and will be released at an unspecified date. “This has been a journey for me and for the people to stand and clap and not stop. And I basically shut out the noise for a while and walked my life backwards and thought about my journey professionally and the journey for ‘Horizon.
’ And I was just really grateful at the end of the day that I stayed true to it,” Costner said of the lengthy standing ovation at Cannes. Costner tells a Western story and focuses on the experiences of Indigenous Americans during colonization. The film meticulously explores a 12-year span during which white settlers encroached upon indigenous lands.
With a diverse cast, the narrative offers a rich tapestry of perspectives on exploring new frontiers. “We're just playing dress ups and telling a story version. But, you know, the frontier was actually founded on people taking wagon trains across through these uncharted territory.
So you really get a bit of empathy towards what actually happened,” actor Sam Worthington said. "Horizon: An American Saga" takes its time to set the tone.
