The Last Winter

Larry Fessenden
USA–Iceland
2006

A familiar friend acting strangely... That’s how we speak of the weather.

101", 35mm
Color, English

about the film

In the Arctic tundra of Northern Alaska, an advanced team working for a petroleum exploration company is engaged in a massive project to begin drilling into pristine land. A sense of unease looms, exacerbated by findings which show that, as a possible result of global warming, the permafrost around the site is melting at an abnormal rate, releasing ‘something’ into the atmosphere from deep within the earth. The crew is already suffering the tension of isolation and begins to find their minds and bodies turning against them. It is as if the earth’s energy is fighting them, like an organism battling to protect itself from a virus. After one crew member is found dead, a disorientation begins. This creeping dread bursts open when a malevolent wind brings down a plane that approaches the station. Explosions and carnage wreak havoc on the team and all functions fail in the camp, forcing two of the members out into the cold on a desperate bid for survival. Hauntingly capturing the majestic landscapes of the Alaskan wild, The Last Winter is imbued with a sense of philosophical inquiry and moral depth that -in a year of record temperature and climactic anomalies- cuts eerily close to home.

about the director

Born in New York in 1963, Larry Fessenden is the writer, director and editor of the award-winning art-horror movies Habit (1982), No Telling (1991) and Wendigo (2001). He has run the production company Glass Eyes Pix since 1985, with the mission of supporting individual voices in the arts. He has been a producer of many films (mostly horror), and as a character actor he has appeared in numerous films by independent directors like Neil Jordan, Jim Jarmusch and Steve Buscemi.

awards

2006 Toronto Film Festival
2007 Melbourne Film Festival
Sitges Film Festival

screenings

February 17 Sunday, 3:30 PM AFM Budak Caddebostan

February 23 Saturday, 10:30 PM AFM Fitaş Beyoğlu 7

February 24 Sunday, 11:30 AM AFM Fitaş Beyoğlu 7

credits

share this film