he trailer has just landed for Foe, an upcoming romance-thriller starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal as a couple whose life starts to implode when a stranger shows up.
The film, which is based on Iain Reid‘s 2018 novel of the same name, tells the story of husband and wife Junior (Mescal) and Hen (Ronan) who live on an isolated farm in 2065.
They are visited by a stranger played by Aaron Pierre (Brother, Old), who makes an unsettling offer: he invites Junior to travel to a large space station orbiting the Earth. Hen is not invited. Junior won’t be leaving Hen alone, says the stranger, because they will replace him with an artificial duplicate.
“We’re going to ensure Hen has company while you’re away,” says the stranger. “We’re going to replace you.”
The camera flashes to scenes of extraordinary landscapes, and zooms in on Mescal and Ronan’s confused faces. Then there are scenes of the couple lying in a bed together, Hen dancing in a living room, Hen crying, a fire in the distance, Junior holding a shotgun at a flying spacecraft, and a clip of Hen leaping across the table to slap Pierre’s character.
“I don’t want a robot living with my wife,” shouts Junior in another. A single note of a piano that is running in the background of the trailer starts to get louder.
Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal in Foe
/ Handout / Amazon Studios“Do you want to live mundane lives? Or do you want to be a part of something special and unique?” asks the stranger.
The release of the trailer has thrilled some quarters of the internet. Not only does Foe star the award-winning Irish actors, but it has been directed by Garth Davis, who directed the Oscar-nominated Lion (2016) and the biblical drama Mary Magdalene (2018).
Davis has written the script alongside Canadian author Reid, whose debut novel, I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2016) was also turned into a film. I’m Thinking of Ending Things was directed by Charlie Kaufman and starred Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette, and David Thewlis.
Saoirse Ronan as Hen in Foe
/ Foe, Official UK Trailer / Amazon StudiosPaul Mescal has been enjoying a busy year since he was nominated for an Oscar in March for starring in Charlotte Wells’s Aftersun. He has been starring in Stanley Kowalski’s A Streetcar Named Desire at both the Almeida and Phoenix theatres, and will be playing a lead role in Ridley Scott’s upcoming historical epic Gladiator 2.
Irish actor Saoirse Ronan most recently starred in the 2022 comedy thriller See How They Run, alongside Sam Rockwell and Adrien Brody.
Foe opens in cinemas on October 6