First Reformed

Panorama

"Bruising, Vital, And One of The Year’s Best Films"

Vox
  • Archive - Festival 34
  • Director: Paul Schrader
  • USA 2017
  • 114 minutes
  • English
  • Subtitles in Hebrew

Paul Schrader’s film, about a middle-aged pastor named Toller (Ethan Hawke, in a truly extraordinary performance) who is shocked out of his self-inflicted torment when he is called to minister to a troubled young environmental activist and his wife (Amanda Seyfried), is as deeply personal as it is politically and spiritually urgent.

Schrader has created a potent cinematic experience, a carefully constructed, beautifully crafted communion with one lonely soul that allows us to gaze right into the eye of modern media- and money-fueled horror.


  • Director Paul Schrader
  • Production Christine Vachon, David Hinojosa, Frank Murray, Jack Binder, Greg Clark, Victoria Hill, Gary Hamilton, Deepak Sikka
  • Script Paul Schrader
  • Cinematography Alexander Dynan
  • Editing Benjamin Rodriguez Jr.
  • Music Lustmord
  • Festivals Venice, Telluride, Toronto, New York
  • Actors Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric Kyles, Michael Gaston, Philip Ettinger, Victoria Hill
  • Source Park Circus, Glasgow