Film Synopsis | It is the year 1917. Lionel (Paul Mescal), a gifted singer from rural Kentucky, and David (Josh O’Connor), a privileged musicologist at the Boston Music Conservatory, have an intense yet necessarily clandestine affair. They reconnect on a New England field recording trip in 1919 recording folk songs on wax cylinders – the dominant recording device of the early 20th century – where they sleep under the stars and fall in love. And when fate parts them in the years after, their love story becomes something more profound. Oliver Hermanus’s (Moffie, 2019; Living, 2022) film, adapted from Ben Shattock’s short story, is a delicate, beautifully composed and achingly poignant exploration of unspoken love, memory, and the enduring impact of fleeting connections.