The Ancient Woods

The documentary takes place inside an old forest. Its trees have stood uncut for centuries. The camera watches what lives on the ground, in the air and in the water. There is no voice over. No narrator explains anything. The sounds of the forest come instead. Leaves, water and wings carry the track. What is happening on screen is not always clear. A mating ritual or the start of a fight, it stays undecided. The absence of explanation leaves the viewer room to read it. The images are sometimes wide and sometimes very close. An insect emerging from the melting snow is watched at length. It waits for its legs to come free and then flies away. The filming carries on by day and by night. The film sits within slow cinema. Mindaugas Survila directed the eighty five minute documentary. It is an Estonian, German and Lithuanian production finished in 2018.