Thriller
Pre-Production
One to wed. One to war.
On the eve of their divide, twin hunters in 1950s Virginia enact dire
plays to stay as one.
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At eighteen, twins and childhood hunting partners Diana and Aidan are set on separate paths by their widowed father. Diana is to be married whilst Aidan enlists in the Korean War.
Fifty Hounds follows the twins on their last day at home, as Diana braces for her cage of domesticity and Aidan prepares for battle.
In their final hours, they cling to their last bits of freedom: Diana sneaks out for one final hunt. Aidan follows her. Beneath the dark of night one of them makes a choice that binds their two fates forever.
Because women can bear children they are believed to be in touch with natural and spiritual cycles and powers and became closely associated with the powers of life and death in many ancient religions. Goddesses Gaia and Hannahanna embodied this authority as matriarchal leaders within their pantheons.
Despite - or perhaps because of - these associations of ancient power, women today still struggle to assert independence over their lives.
Set in the woods, Fifty Hounds originates in stories of ancient goddesses whose feminine power is rooted in creation, destruction, and the natural world. Inspired by the myths of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, Fifty Hounds explores what’s been suppressed in the modern understanding of what makes women powerful.
Weaving myth and film, we aim to ignite further conversations surrounding women’s power and autonomy.
Diana is a wild woman. A liberated goddess. One of few allowed to reign without the presence of a man.
Fifty Hounds was born from the myth of Actaeon and his Fifty Hounds, which depicts the sanctity surrounding the immortal, unattainable Diana and the power one encounters with a wild woman. The story prompted me to ask:
What is the cost of feminine freedom?
In a reality where those in power, under the guise of protection, force women back into cages they believed were long broken, this film becomes a warning…a spark. I am telling it now because the past is not past, and the myths we think we have outgrown are still being lived.
- Halle Skye