‘God’s Country’ Clip: Thandiwe Newton Leads Julian Higgins’ Sundance Thriller

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has the first clip from God’s Country, a thriller starring Emmy winner Thandiwe Newton (Westworld, Reminiscence) that is making its world premiere at the virtual Sundance Film Festival this Sunday, January 23.

Julian Higgins’ feature directorial debut is based on Winter’s Light, a short story by James Lee Burke that he previously adapted into a 2015 short of the same name. It’s a character-driven thriller centered on Sandra Guidry (Newton), a professor living and working in a rural college town who is grieving her recently-deceased mother. On the day of the burial, Sandra discovers a mysterious red truck parked in her driveway, soon learning that it belongs to a pair of local hunters seeking to enter the forest behind her house.

Sandra turns them away politely but firmly – her experience tells her these are not the sort of men to welcome freely into her world. But they won’t take no for an answer, and soon Sandra finds herself drawn into an escalating battle of wills that puts her most deeply-held values to the test.

In the clip, we watch as Sandra first meets hunters Nathan (Joris Jarsky) and Samuel Cody (Jefferson White) face to face—calmly insisting that they stay off her land, to no avail.

Higgins and Shaye Ogbonna handled the screenplay adaptation for the acquisition title, which also stars Jeremy Bobb, Kai Lennox and Tanaya Beatty. Higgins, Miranda Bailey, Halee Bernard and Amanda Marshall produced it, with Jason Beck and Anthony Ciardelli serving as its executive producers.

Check out the clip teasing God’s Country above.