The offense is the humming of electrical powerlines, the defense is to shoot them down. In a literal power struggle between capitalism vs environmentalism, director Benedikt Erlingsson’s lyrical drama Woman at War is a pseudo-folklore that combines the beauty of Iceland with the strength of a woman. Here’s what you need to know about the 2018 Cannes Film Festival selection:
‘The woman on the mountain’
The backdrop is modern-day Iceland where our unlikely protagonist and self-appointed soldier is set to take on the country’s aluminum industry. Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) is an unsuspecting middle-aged woman who, when not moonlighting as a covert environmental activist, is a single, well-respected choir teacher. Her determination to keep her country pollution-free has been quite successful so far, that is, until she receives a follow-up call from an adoption agency request that she sent several years ago. Turns out, Halla is now destined to become a mother to a four-year-old Ukrainian girl, thus forcing her to choose to continue her commitment to saving mother earth, or embark on her dreams of motherhood.
The core message is stark- one of big corporations and environmental decline- but Woman at War tells this tale with humor and self-awareness. This is evident in the very first scene, as Halla is bringing down one of many power lines in the country’s picturesque and luscious hillside. A three-piece band (also playing the score) appears in the open field and continues to follow her throughout the film- drum kit, tuba, and all. Halla’s home-grown sabotage against her country’s industrialization leads back to her strong beliefs in that what she is doing is right, despite the fact that it is “illegal”.
Real problems told through humor
Highly creative and unique, Erlingsson uses inventive storytelling as the vehicle to get his point across: unless ordinary people like Halla step up in defense of nature, we will be complacent in the harmful changes occurring around us. His message is told through humor, including jokes about the incestuous nature of Iceland and even in naming a dog, ‘Woman.’ These light-hearted moments are balanced with more sobering ones, like Halla wading through waist-high water, symbolizing the cleansing of her past life, and starting fresh. This baptism of sorts gives Halla a new identity, a new role in the world which shifts her protectiveness from Mother Earth to Motherhood.
Music on the mountain
Original music by Icelandic pianist and composer Davíð Þór Jónsson is crucial to the film’s structure and surreal narrative. Emotionally compelling, the score is both heard and seen on screen as the small group of musicians appear in various scenes with Halla, usually breaking the fourth wall, which signals an impending crossroads, or shift in narrative. The piano/drum/accordion combination creates a sound so specific to the environment, it acts as a love ballad to Icelandic culture and tradition. It’s no surprise that Jónsson won this year’s HARPA Nordic Film Composers Award for his contribution to Woman at War.
A modern poetic masterpiece
Woman at War is a gem of a movie with tremendous spirit. A strong performance from Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir grounds the film’s fairy tale qualities in reality as our heroine sets out to right the world’s wrongs with nothing more than a bow & arrow. Her strength is admirable and her beliefs even more so. It would be a shame to miss out on this foreign language eco-thriller, whose vibrant colors alone are enough to provide inspiration. In addition to a poetic masterpiece, Woman at War is just the type of film we should pay attention to right now.
Woman at War is unrated. 100 minutes. Opening this Friday at Laemmle theaters.
