Whimsical Icelandic film resonates with emotional impact.
Somehow, I keep missing director Benedikt Erlingsson’s critically lauded 2013 film “Of Horses and Men.” I just watched the trailer for that unusual movie once again, and it has to be added to my blindspot list. Luckily, some five years later the quirky talent returns with “Woman at War.” This tale of an unassuming environmental terrorist might warm even the hardened capitalist’s soul.
When Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) decides to wage a one woman war on a local aluminum industry, she risks everything in her life. Her guerrilla tactics involve use of basic weapons, a bow and arrow, for example, to disrupt the power to the industrial behemoth. And because she works alone, no one knows who she is or what she’s up to. Just why she’s made this criminal decision is both clear and somewhat muddled, as we learn that a government operative just might be her minor accomplice.
But Halla’s personal battles take their toll on her intimate family. We meet her twin sister Ása (also played by Geirharðsdóttir), who is a yoga instructor. Both women, in their 40s, are childless and only have each other for companionship. And even though Halla is a high-end outlaw, she’s applied to adopt a child from war torn Ukraine. When told of an available young girl, Halla clutches a photo of her as though it’s a prized possession. Is her environmental war worth losing this little one?
Erlingsson works from a screenplay by Ólafur Egilsson, who had a hand in Baltasar Kormákur’s “The Oath” in 2016. These films make great use of the landscape of Iceland. It makes you wonder if it’s possible to shoot a bad picture there, as “Woman at War,” shot by “Of Horses and Men” cinematographer Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson, captures the action on stunning vistas.
But regardless how beautifully filmed this movie is, without a compelling narrative, the pictures would be wasted. The Egilsson/Erlingsson script gives us two physical halves of a wandering soul. Halla and Ása lack so much in their otherwise ordered lives. Aside from moonlighting as a terrorist, Halla is a music director. And she appears to have a great passion for it. Ása dreams of leaving Iceland to receive advanced yoga training and special skills from a great yogi or yogini. Both women need something to complete them. And maybe fighting a hopeless battle against the impenetrable windmill of the aluminum industry isn’t Halla’s ultimate calling.
I was struck by how “Woman at War” affected me. Erlingsson lets us in on Halla’s internal struggle by articulating her emotions literally through the use of a three piece band and three indigenous singers that, in a ghostly way, follow Halla through her adventures. It’s like a Greek chorus that gives us something of Halla’s internal monologue, a bit of whimsy that I found entertaining and also disquieting.
“Woman at War” is a small film about big issues that originate within the individual looking for a place in the world.