Lily Gladstone (Mollie Burkhart) and Leonardo DiCaprio (Ernest Burkhart) in Killers of the Flower Moon © 2023 Apple Studios
Killers of the Flower Moon, the return of Scorsese to the Official Selection
This is the eighth film in the Selection for Martin Scorsese, winner of the Palme d’Or for Taxi Driver in 1976, and the Best Director Award in 1986 for After Hours. Since then, the director, who needs no introduction, hasn’t returned to the Official Selection, and it’s quite an event to welcome him Out of Competition with Killers of The Flower Moon. Set in 1920s Oklahoma, this police drama with a Western feel is based on a true story and denounces the American Indians’ lack of rights.
A choice duo of iconic actors star in Martin Scorsese’s new film, which was adapted from the bestseller by David Grann (2017). Based on a true story, it recounts a series of unsolved murders committed in the 1920s within the Osage Nation known as the “Reign of Terror.”
Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays the role of Ernest Burkhart, a rancher and nephew of crime boss William Hale, reunites with Martin Scorsese eleven years after his legendary role as a cynical stockbroker in The Wolf of Wall Street (2012). Robert De Niro (William Hale), the instigator of the murders in the film, makes Killers of the Flower Moon his tenth collaboration with the New York director since Mean Streets (1973).
American actress Lily Gladstone plays Molly, Ernest’s Osage wife, the first to be affected by the consequences of the discovery of oil deposits under her ancestral lands. Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog) rounds out this all-star cast in the role of an FBI agent tasked to investigate the murders within the American Indian tribe.
The adaptation of the book for the film was done by Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Eric Roth, who has worked on other successful films such as The Nickel Ride by Robert Mulligan, in Competition in 1974, Forrest Gump (1994), Munich (2006) and more recently Dune (2020).
