Requiem for Billy the Kid

Lincoln, New Mexico, July 14th, 1881. 21-years old outlaw Billy the Kid is gunned down by his friend, Sheriff Pat Garrett. A legend is born. And a rumor. The director Anne Feinsilber sets off on a search for Billy the Kid just as Lincoln County’s modern day Sheriff is opening a murder case into the circumstances that led to the Billy the Kid’s escape from jail and his death. Did Pat Garrett kill Billy the Kid that night or did Billy the Kid escape to Mexico as the century-old rumor has it?

“My starting point was an emotion. The spaces of New Mexico and modern cowboys, with faces, voices and presence that only in part fill this endless land. I was equally fascinated by Kris Kristofferson’s voice: in 1973 in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and today again, more than 30 years later. [...] I thought it would be possible to tell the story of Billy the Kid from a contemporary point of view instead of a historical one. I wanted to make a western to explore my nostalgia for a past long gone, hoping that my fantasy would bring it back to life.” (A. Feinsilber)