SHREWSBURY FILM SOCIETY
| Director | Benedikt Erlingsson |
|---|---|
| Country | Iceland |
| Year | 2018 |
Woman at War is a jet-black comedy of startling originality, a film that blends environmental activism, mythic resonance and deadpan Icelandic humour into a singularly compelling tale. Directed by Benedikt Erlingsson, whose earlier Of Horses and Men established him as a master of surreal tragicomedy, this feature continues his fascination with the eccentricities of human behaviour and the fragile relationship between people and the natural world. It is a story of imminent ecological threat, but also of personal longing, identity and the possibility of renewal.
At its centre is Halla, magnificently played by Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, a middle-aged choir leader who leads a double life as an eco-warrior known only as Mountain Woman. The film opens amid the breathtaking landscapes of rural Iceland, captured with crisp clarity by cinematographer Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson. Halla fires an arrow over a power line, cutting electricity and disrupting government plans for a new aluminium smelter. Her sabotage is bold, physical and almost ritualistic, placing her in the lineage of real-life environmental defenders such as Berta Cáceres while also giving her the mythic aura of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the wilderness.
Halla’s guerrilla actions are carried out with a mixture of determination and wry humour. Erlingsson overturns action-movie clichés with a playful twist, staging Mission: Impossible-style escapes in a DIY register. Yet the stakes are real. The film’s catastrophic subject is the despoliation of the planet, and Halla’s acts of resistance are framed as both heroic and deeply personal. She is fighting not only for the environment but also for her own sense of purpose.
This sense of duality runs throughout the film. Halla has a twin sister, a detail that underscores her divided nature. She is also in the process of adopting a child, a Ukrainian orphan whose sudden availability forces her to confront the tension between her clandestine activism and her desire to become a mother. Can she continue to wage environmental war while preparing to care for a vulnerable child. Or will the authorities catch up with her before she can fulfil her dream.
Erlingsson’s humour is famously dry, and Woman at War is filled with moments of absurdity that never undermine the seriousness of its themes. One of the film’s most distinctive devices is the presence of on-screen musicians who appear in the background of scenes, playing drums, accordion and sousaphone. They function as a kind of Greek chorus, mediating between the action and the audience. Their circus-like energy recalls the archival imagery of The Show of Shows, which Erlingsson co-created. In contrast, a Ukrainian women’s choir provides a melancholy counterpoint, their voices embodying the emotional weight of Halla’s divided soul.
The film’s tone is both playful and urgent. Erlingsson describes it as a mainstream blockbuster story for everyone, though its subversive spirit and idiosyncratic flourishes make it far stranger and more inventive than that label suggests. It is a heroic tale set in a world of imminent threat, but also a warm, witty and humane portrait of a woman trying to reconcile her ideals with her responsibilities.
Geirharðsdóttir’s performance anchors the film. She combines athletic physicality with emotional nuance, shifting between steely resolve and moments of vulnerability. Her scenes with Jóhann Sigurðarson, who plays Sveinbjörn, a sheep farmer who lives alone with his dog, are especially touching. Their unexpected bond adds a note of tenderness to a film that is otherwise driven by tension and urgency.
Woman at War is a weirdly beautiful film, a work of warmth, humour and nimbleness that uses its eccentricities to draw the viewer deeper into its world. It is a reminder that activism can be both epic and intimate, and that even in a landscape of looming ecological catastrophe, small acts of connection still matter.
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