At the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, On Swift Horses, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elordi, Will Poulter, Diego Calva and Sasha Calle, premiered to an eager audience. Directed by Daniel Minahan and based on the novel by Shannon Pufahl, the film takes viewers back to the 1950s, portraying what Minahan describes as a “reimagining of the American dream.”

Set in post-war America, the film follows Muriel (Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Poulter), a young couple seemingly living the ideal middle-class life in California. Their life takes a complicated turn when Lee’s brother, Julius (Elordi), returns from the Korean War, forming a bond with Muriel that adds tension to their conventional world.

“We have this paradigm set up in the film,” Minahan said. “Muriel is pursuing this very conventional relationship with her husband Lee, and Julius is living on the road, literally, this kind of freewheeling gambling. They’re both aspirational stories.”

Minahan expanded on this dual narrative, highlighting the aspirations that define the American dream in two ways: home ownership and sudden wealth.

“The idea of buying a house as a young couple in a housing development and creating community and buying a car is very American, and it’s very aspirational,” Minahan said. “The idea of going to Las Vegas and gambling and winning a ton of money, and overnight becoming a rich person is also.”

However, beneath the surface, both characters face inner turmoil, exacerbated by their queer identities in an era when homosexuality was criminalized.

“Even people who are living that life, living the dream so to speak, still feel like outsiders,” Minahan said. “But I think everyone can relate to the idea of having to hide yourself and your real feelings.”

For Minahan, the relationship between Muriel and Julius is particularly compelling, calling their connection an “unspoken alliance.”

“Muriel and Julius meet, recognize each other, have this intense attraction and change the course of each other’s lives,” he said. “They spend three-quarters of the film apart, but have this huge influence on each other. I thought that was so beautiful.”

Visually, On Swift Horses achieves a raw authenticity, thanks to cinematographer Luc Montpellier. Instead of drawing inspiration from films, the visual team turned to period photography and art from figures like Gordon Parks and John Koch.

“I didn’t want to feel like we were imitating a period film,” Minahan said.

Through the characters’ intertwined lives, On Swift Horses reflects a profound exploration of human desires, aspirations and the complex realities beneath the American dream.