Roberto Minervini’s new haunting civil war western The Damned makes its debut on May 16 after winning best director at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
Get ready for a stark and soul-searching journey into America’s past. The Damned, the latest work from acclaimed filmmaker Roberto Minervini, is heading to theaters on May 16, offering an intimate look at war, purpose, and identity set against the backdrop of the Civil War.
Written and directed by Minervini, best known for What You Gonna Do When the World’s On Fire?, The Damned unfolds in Winter 1862, deep in the shadow of a fractured nation. A company of volunteer soldiers from the U.S. Army is dispatched to the western territories, tasked with patrolling treacherous, uncharted borderlands. But as the mission evolves and deviates from its original course, the soldiers find themselves grappling with the growing ambiguity of their orders and the meaning of their engagement.
This stripped-down, existential war drama has already made a splash on the international stage, with Minervini taking home the Un Certain Regard Best Director prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Critics have praised The Damned for its atmospheric storytelling and philosophical depth.
The Hollywood Reporter‘s Jordan Mintzer called the film “mesmerizing… a quietly intoxicating and existentially real war movie,” while Peter Debruge of Variety described it as “a welcome addition to an oeuvre consistently attuned to the way Americans think about faith, class and community, whether or not the Americans in question realize it themselves.”
The Damned stars Jeremiah Knupp, René W. Solomon, Cuyler Ballenger, Noah Carlson, Judah Carlson, and Tim Carlson. It is produced by Paolo Benzi, Denise Ping Lee, Roberto Minervini, and Paolo Del Brocco, and distributed by Grasshopper Film.
With its minimalist approach and deeply human core, The Damned promises to be a war film unlike any other—one that lingers in the quiet and questions the very nature of duty and existence.
