Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.03.2019, Qupperneq 15

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Lögberg-Heimskringla • 1. mars 2019 • 15
If you get a chance to see
Woman at War (Kona
fer í stríð) by Benedikt
Erlingsson, go see it. Four of
us, led by Margo Matwychuk,
braved the cold and the ice
and the snow. We would have
hacked our way through an
army of trolls if necessary.
When we got to the Vic
Theatre, the long line up looked
like it had been imported from
Winnipeg: toques, parkas,
insulated boots, red noses.
The movie is crazy. Let that
be said right at the beginning.
The heroine, Halla (played by
Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir), is
running across the volcanic
landscape and there is the
usual insistent music for
such a scene but then there
is a trio (Davið Þór Jónsson,
Magnús Trygvason Eliassen,
and Ómar Guðjónsson) in
the midst of Iceland’s barren,
unforgiving landscape. Later,
three Ukrainian singers
(Iryna Danyleiko, Galyna
Goncharenko, and Susanna
Kurpenko), dressed in festive
costumes, appear singing in
unexpected places such as
the side of a road. At first, I
thought, What! What!, but
quickly slipped into enjoying
and anticipating the musicians.
Although they have no lines,
their music comments on and
intensifies the scenery and
events. Strange as it was, I
thought the presence of the
musicians and singers brilliant.
The film’s narrative continues
as normal, unaware of the
audience, but it is as if the
musicians share both worlds,
aware of the drama on screen,
and the audience in front of the
screen.
This is a film of brilliant
moments and brilliant minor
characters. If I was watching
it at home, I’d want to stop it
in places, play it back, and say
to whomever I was watching it
with, Look at that. Did you see
that? There is the poor Spanish
bicyclist (Juan Camillo Roman
Estrada) who is always in the
wrong place at the wrong time.
He is repeatedly arrested. His
wild hair, dark skin, and sense
of being lost marks him as a
foreigner and an obvious target
in a country where everyone is
tied by genetics. His growing,
hapless confusion brought
ripples of laughter.
When Halla is being
pursued by the evil forces of
the establishment – police in
helicopters, with drones, cars,
every bit of modern technology
possible – she ends up at a
farm. And, of course, there
is a farmer and because it is
Iceland, he a possible cousin.
He helps her escape. Another
time, he rescues her by hiding
her in a truck full of sheep.
The farmer, Sveinbjörn, is a
minor character, but Jóhann
Sigurðarson makes him
charming, likeable, believable
– everyone’s possible cousin.
When Halla is cold to the bone
from hiding in an ice field, he
carries her to a warm pool and
lays her in it.
The story line is fairly
simple. Halla, the main
character, is on a one-
woman crusade to stop the
industrialization of Iceland
and its domination by foreign
governments – the Chinese,
the Americans, and others.
Industry has come to Iceland
because electricity is cheap. It
despoils the landscape and, by
implication, the people. Halla
is an eco-warrior. She attacks
the pylons that bring cheap
electricity to the aluminum
plants. The contrast between
the landscape and the inside
of a smelter is well done.
I thought for a moment of
Charlie Chaplin in Modern
Times: modern times in Iceland
with the people being chewed
up by foreign businesses who
care nothing for them or for the
land.
Halla has a twin sister.
Unlike Halla, she is interested
in her internal journey and is
planning on going to India to
study. Their relationship is
carefully constructed so that
the parts of the ending fall
into place like the pieces of a
parquet floor.
Halla’s war against foreign
industry is disrupted by a letter
telling her that her four-year-old
application to adopt an orphan
has finally gone through. She
has to go to Ukraine to get
a four-year-old girl whose
mother, father, and grandmother
have all been killed in the
fighting there. A conviction for
a criminal offense would mean
losing the chance to adopt.
However, not fighting against
the industrialization that is
destroying Iceland’s landscape
and character would mean not
fighting for a better planet for
the child and, by implication,
all the world’s children.
Quirky. If I had to describe
the film in one word, it would be
quirky. But quirky in a way that
made me feel and care and like
the characters. I’m not much of
a warrior so I don’t think the
film would inspire me to bring
down pylons but here in British
Columbia there is a battle to
protect Burrard Inlet and, at the
same time, the Wet’suwet’en
First Nation is opposing a gas
pipeline through their territory.
The struggle of large industrial
companies against locals is a
theme that we will be seeing
more and more of as companies
become larger, international,
and have no interest or concern
for local people or the local
environment. The theatre
was nearly full. From what
I observed, it was more the
Icelandic community that
filled the seats rather than eco-
warriors.
Some Icelandic films I’ve
seen – and I’ve seen a lot – aren’t
as successful as they could be
because the plots trickle away.
Not Woman at War. The ending
is carefully set up from the very
beginning. The plot points click
together nicely. The unexpected
ending is prepared for. The final
scenes take the mundane and
raise it to the symbolic without
overdoing it.
Helga Thorson, the German
and Slavonics department chair
at the University of Victoria
and director of the Richard and
Margret Beck Lecture Series,
introduced the film, which was
sponsored by the Beck Series.
W.D. Valgardson
Victoria, BC
Woman at War is quirky and brilliant
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