Woman at War

Halla conducts a choir in Iceland. Nobody knows that the same woman goes up into the highlands and brings down power lines with a bow and steel cable, cutting the electricity to the aluminium smelters. The state declares her a terrorist. At exactly that moment the adoption application she made years ago is approved: there is a child waiting for her in Ukraine. The subject is not environmentalism but two commitments that cannot both be kept. If Halla stops, the power line stands; if she does not collect the child, the child stays where she is. The film builds the dilemma without delivering a moral. The form is distinguished by a single invention: the three-piece band playing the score and three Ukrainian women singers are physically present in the frame. As Halla runs across the highland the drummer is playing on the rock beside her. The characters do not see them but the viewer does, and now and then the musicians react to what is happening. It was shot in the Icelandic interior, in real highlands, and the landscape is used as part of the narration. The film screened in Critics' Week at Cannes and won a prize there. Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir plays both Halla and her twin sister. Benedikt Erlingsson directs. Who it is for: viewers who like Nordic humour and formal play. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the political consequences of the action to be examined; the film leaves that at the surface.