{"id":7142,"date":"2019-03-22T09:44:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T13:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=7142"},"modified":"2019-03-22T09:53:37","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T13:53:37","slug":"review-woman-at-war-kona-fer-i-strid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=7142","title":{"rendered":"Review: WOMAN AT WAR (Kona fer \u00ed str\u00ed\u00f0)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Whimsical Icelandic film resonates with emotional impact.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Somehow, I keep missing director Benedikt Erlingsson\u2019s critically lauded 2013 film \u201cOf Horses and Men.\u201d 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 \u201cWoman at War.\u201d This tale of an unassuming environmental terrorist might warm even the hardened capitalist\u2019s soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Armed with a bow and arrow, Halla takes on a huge company.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Halla (Halld\u00f3ra Geirhar\u00f0sd\u00f3ttir) 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\u2019s up to. Just why she\u2019s 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\u2019s personal battles take their toll on her intimate family. We meet her twin sister \u00c1sa (also played by Geirhar\u00f0sd\u00f3ttir), 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\u2019s 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\u2019s a prized possession. Is her environmental war worth losing this little one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Twins, both struggling with purpose and meaning in their lives.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Erlingsson works from a screenplay by \u00d3lafur Egilsson, who had a hand in Baltasar Korm\u00e1kur\u2019s \u201cThe Oath<\/a>\u201d in 2016. These films make great use of the landscape of Iceland. It makes you wonder if it\u2019s possible to shoot a bad picture there, as \u201cWoman at War,\u201d shot by \u201cOf Horses and Men\u201d cinematographer Bergsteinn Bj\u00f6rg\u00falfsson, captures the action on stunning vistas.
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The beautiful countryside provides cover and protection.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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 \u00c1sa 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. \u00c1sa 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\u2019t Halla\u2019s ultimate calling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Halla’s internal monologue is manifested in music.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was struck by how \u201cWoman at War\u201d affected me. Erlingsson lets us in on Halla\u2019s 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\u2019s like a Greek chorus that gives us something of Halla\u2019s internal monologue, a bit of whimsy that I found entertaining and also disquieting.

\u201cWoman at War\u201d is a small film about big issues that originate within the individual looking for a place in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Benedikt Erlingsson\u2019s second narrative feature captures Iceland’s beautiful landscapes and tells us something of its mood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1361,1357,1363,1359,1362,1355,1358,1360,1356],"class_list":["post-7142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-baltasar-kormakur","tag-benedikt-erlingsson","tag-bergsteinn-bjorgulfsson","tag-halldora-geirhardsdottir","tag-iceland","tag-kona-fer-i-strid","tag-of-horses-and-men","tag-olafur-egilsson","tag-woman-at-war","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7142"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7151,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7142\/revisions\/7151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}