"Once upon a time, far away from here, there was a cute Old lady, very very fond of animals...." Spoor is a cruel tale of our days in which there is no lack of Little Red Riding Hood, The Wolf (both in disguise) and many hunters; but the originality is that the role of all of them is in reverse. We have such a beautiful ending that is not real. In this story we are shown the utmost consequences of two extremes radically opposed; we are shown on the one hand the excessive love for hunting and abuse of animals and on the other hand what can be the most extreme extent in the defense of animals, namely: some men kill animals and those who are against all that and oppose, can even kill men. Spoor is a Tale for people of today and culturally affecting many countries traditions, and above all with many aspects to think seriously about.
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pacolopezpersonal19 September 2017
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dromasca22 January 2020Agnieszka Holland is one of the most important directors of the impressive Polish film school, and the one who managed to build best an international career, of course, except for Roman Polanski. Most of her activity over the last two decades took place on the television studios where Agnieszka Holland has created fine original mini-series or directed episodes of successful series. Once a few years the director returns to her native Poland to make a feature film - always interesting, always approaching painfull themes from the present or the troubled history of Poland of the last century. 'Spoor' ('Potok' in Polish) is a film solidly anchored in reality, the adaptation of a novel by the recent Nobel laureate for literature, Olga Tokarczuk, who co-authored the script along with the director. I haven't read (yet) the book, but from what I read about the movie, it's a faithful, maybe even too faithful adaptation. The film (maybe also the book) can be interpreted on several levels - political parable, eco-thriller, horror. Almost all fans of these genres will have their reasons for satisfaction as well as for objections.
The setting of the story is suited to a police mystery, maybe even a mini-series of the genre. We are in a mountainous area of Poland, with the symptoms and characters known to those who have lived in the last 30 years in the Eastern Europe that came out of communism: local mob, corrupt policemen, disoriented people trying to adapt to the changes. The main recreation of men is hunting. Most people seem to be in conflict with nature, the hunters decimate with cruelty and sometimes out of the law (regardless of hunting seasons) the animal world. Those who take an attitude in defending nature represent a marginalized minority. Strange things start happening, including violent deaths. Who is the murderer? Is it possible that the animal kingdom is trying to retaliate, maybe even to take revenge?
The theme is also addressed in other films, the first one that reminds me is the excellent French series 'Les Revenants' ('The Returned'). Olga Tokarczuk and Agnieszka Holland, however, give to their story a political dimension. The mountain town and its surroundings are a micro-cosmos of a severely fractured society and of a political system that does not pay too much attention to the rights and opinions of minorities, and less they care about the environment. The majority of the inhabitants are non-educated, indifferent, sometimes violent and corrupt. The ones belonging to the opposing minority are alienated, intimidated, sometimes adept of esoteric hobbies and of New Agee philosophies. The main heroes of the film belong to the latter category, but of all, only Professor Duszejko is well-defined and excellently played by actress Agnieszka Mandat. The rest of the characters are more like sketches of portraits, without enough screen time to develop beyond stereotypes and to deepen the motivations of their actions and attitudes. This is my main cinematic objection. What is sufficient in a television series does not always satisfy in a feature film. 'Spoor' has an interesting theme that urges reflection and debate, but the execution, this time, is below what I expected from a film by Agnieszka Holland. The 'horror' and eco-thriller threads are a little more convincing, and the expressive and depressing image helps, though the film director seems not to have wanted to push too far in this direction. The end clarifies much of what happened before, but opens up another dilemma, a moral one, that will accompany the movie's viewers even after the screening ends. -
This is Poland's entry to the Academy Awards and it was not chosen among the five nominees. An old woman living alone in a farmhouse goes on a mission to stop the areas hunters from killing the wildlife. The culture is one with a long tradition of hunting the deer, wild boar, and especially foxes for their furs. They are skinned alive for their pelts, and it is quite vicious. The woman reports a series of murders of the hunters, and she becomes a pain in the ass to the police with her theories based on astrological charts of the local population. The ending is not what I expected, and this is a really strange movie.
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uthusantuhan28 October 2017East Europe's quality display in all of its glory. Detail view of the nature is superbly put together. Directors from this part of the world have class and taste.
Storyline tempo was too jerky switching from the opening to the conclusions. The events of revelations seemed to lost its tempo. And the detail of character within is blurred from one unto another. Like a car chase with the same type of car with the same type of color. You cannot grasp who is chasing who...
But overall this movie have landed an arrow in my heart like a cupid of destiny. Bravo -
Horst_In_Translation12 January 2018"Pokot" or "Spoor" (that occasionally reminded me of Haneke's Oscar-nominated White Ribbon) is a Polish 2017 movie that runs for over 2 hours, so a pretty long watch, and it is the most recent release by co-director and co-writer Agnieszka Holland as she is back to her home now and away from Hollywood at least for a little while. This was chosen as Poland's Oscar submission, but failed to get in. Unless you are Polish yourself or have a deep interest in the country's film industry, you probably won't recognize any of the actors in here. This is the story of a relatively old woman played by Agnieszka Mandat living in rural Poland and how she deals with her neighbors' passion for hunting. Even the local priest cannot comfort her and instead turns into what you could call her biggest enemy as his passion for living creatures does not include animals at all. I think it was a good film as a whole that had many solid moments. There were moments when you could say it was over the top like the protagonist's nickname for the young woman, but these are somewhat justified through the lady's disorder too. She certainly isn't a healthy woman by any means and it may be a result too from her years of loneliness, without humans at least, not without animals. And one of the film's biggest strengths comes from your very personal decision how much you identify with her and with what she says and does. This does not just include her love for animals and how she puts them above humans, but also with some of her other takes like astrology for example and I must admit that I really found it difficult to follow her to that regard, just because the subject does so little for me and I never had an interest in it.
Let me say that this is a very controversial film that will evoke all kinds of emotions in audiences. This also refers to my viewing. We had a guy who quickly thought she was an insane lunatic, but you could feel that many also felt and cared for the woman. And right when you find out that it was probably her who commited all these murders, you find out about her motivations which again makes it difficult to really hate her for what she did. It's not just about her hate against hunting, but it is about the most personal loss she could have suffered. I must say I am a bit surprised these 4 people on her side never really asked themselves if they should really stay with her, but I guess it is also somewhat justified by the motivations for her actions. In any case, this was a very bleak and atmospheric film which may be Holland's biggest strength to deliver with that approach. It is also based on a novel, but I cannot say a lot about parallels and differences as I have not read this one. The last shot with her becoming one with nature was pretty good too, even if I must say that I expected another ending, namely either her being killed by who she loves, i.e. a wild animal, or by who she hates, i.e. the hunters who'd definitely have taken the chance to shoot a human justified by her being a killer and they probably would not have to be worried about legal punishment judging from what we have seen about the Polish police in there. I also liked that the one female cop is really against her too and says so explicitly in her presence that she thinks she is sompletely whacked. There may be emancipation factors in this film, maybe a bit of feminism too, buit it's far from at the very core of it, even if I generally would say, and attendance during my viewing confirmed this, that this was a film that is maybe more interesting for females. But still males like myself can enjoy it too. I think it was a pretty good character study and the more I think about it the more I like it now. Holland as well as her cast and crew deliver again. This deserves to be seen on a big screen and I give it a comfortable thumbs-up. Go check it out. -
Started really well, building up characters was and connecting them to the story was excellent effort, but... it had those long stretches of "animal right preaching" (which I totally understand) taking away attention. From 4 people watching it, we had two asleep! I am not sure if this was a good movie or not, but I know that the team making it was excellent and professional. I wish the result was more like that!
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setgetsiin24 December 2022Greta would cream over this movie--the lead looks like an older version of her as well. The reason this movie works is because this woman isn't going out of her way to inconvenience anyone with her views until it becomes personal. Then all bets are off. She doesn't stop traffic or glue herself to things to make a point (that everyone would miss if she pulled these attention grabbing stunts)--nobody would GET the point, as proven when she merely loses her temper, {which is obviously misdirected grief over her lost dogs}. We can understand that.
The beauty of this flick is--while a bit long and her spiraling due to aforementioned grief can be a bit over the top for some--the good guys WIN. It's a rare situation when the good guys WIN. Everyone loves a happy ending when it comes to this sort of thing--even if you ARE a hunter. There's layers of reasons, layers of stories: You have to watch it, pay attention, and stick it out till the end.
I highly recommend it. The setting was also incredibly beautiful, I always wanted to go to Poland--even live there. So lovely. -
ravindrajahagirdar16 January 2018I watched this film on January 16,2018, during the Pune International film Festival mainly because the director 's name was associated with two of the most talented film directors,Zanussi and Andrei Wajda. She was assistant to Zanussi and Wajda was her mentor. I expected a lot from this film but was disappointed. I am surprised that Polish Film Committee sent this as an entry to the Oscars and not surprised at all it did not make it. I think the character does not shape well,nor her concerns. She may have left the city and come to live with the nature but that does not necessarily mean she is in love with the animals and the environment. She comes across as a bit off-the-track erratic old lonely grumpy woman when she argues with the police that they should arrest the hunters. She looks absurd,not like one arguing a case for the animals and the environment. Degradation is hardly attempted,it is a lush green rich landscape visibly. Where is the destruction ? Where is the crime ? A man taken for dead stirs,he is alive,he died later with a bone stuck in his mouth ! The astrology aspect is totally off track and one does not see how it is relevant and useful.I cannot buy any argument extended about past,present reading and with some effort 'when'. Also,her neighbour talking about his parents and his German mother committing suicide, this tale comes out of the blue for absolutely no reason.
Director keeps shifting goal-posts and as a story we keep searching for the central.focus. On the positive side, it is shot beautifully, technically very very impressive. The director showing landscapes clearly shows her attempt to draw our attention to the beautiful landscape. But she fails to connect the subject and the setting. The community too is shown in bits and pieces. Surely the editor had to cut out a lot than what he could keep in. The character shaping and it's motive and each dialogue must be carefully planned. The subjects keep shifting focus,that is its main failing. I wish I had a chance to look at the screenplay before it was greenlight ed for shootiñg. It needs improvement,madam. Obviously you must be a good director and you wish to follow your gurus but story-telling is an area which needs more attention. Best wishes-RJ,Pune,Media faculty,Int'l Workshops,India -
MOscarbradley7 October 2019One of Agneiszka Holland's best films, "Spoor" is a kind of ecological thriller-cum-message picture, magnificently shot by Jolanta Dylewska abd Rafal Paradowski in the Kotlina Klodzka region of Poland. Agnieszka Mandat is superb as the middle-aged teacher with a passion for animals and at loggerheads with her neighbours, hunters all; then her neighbours start turning up dead... It's certainly an unusual story, one might even say far-fetched and its ecological message is laid on a bit thick at times but Holland still manages to get considerable mileage out of it making spectacular use of her locations and giving the animals their dues. Perhaps the best thing about the film is that, while its message is clear from the start, it's never pedantic or over-stated and finally it's as a good old-fashioned whodunnit that it really works, helped no end by a superb score from Antoni Lazarkiewicz. Seek this one out.
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Foutainoflife18 January 2019This film wasn't what I expected. It is a dramatic movie with a mystery tangled into it.
I'll start with the good things. This film has great nature scenes that have been nicely caught on the camera. It is, at heart, about the killing and poaching animals and how people are blind to the senselessness of their actions, failing to see that animals are living creatures. The plot of the movie was a bit shaky for me but I was reading subtitles and they don't always have the movie being translated as intended. The acting was just ok.
The bad things. This movie is much longer than it should be. There were times where I was losing interest because it was moving along so slow. I didn't feel that the character builds came across well and some of the side stories were presented in odd ways. I had expected this to be far more suspenseful than it was.
If you are looking for a drama about animal rights you may enjoy this. -
I love a good murder mystery film, I only wish that Spoor was a good murder mystery film. It is a clumsily-constructed narrative that basically requires all the police to be morons, as they voluntarily ignore what should be obvious. It focuses on an eccentric old woman who is an avid nature lover that obsesses over the well-being of all animals. Living where she does in Poland, she is surrounded by a society of people who greatly value hunting, and that puts her at odds with almost everyone. She also forms some loose friendships with the outsiders in town, but this is primarily the story of her journey, and how she keeps discovering the bodies of dead hunters. I will say no more about the string of murders because there is a chance you might be surprised at what is happening, but it seemed fairly obvious to me.
Now it's not impossible to enjoy a mystery when I figure it out early, if the journey is still worthwhile. Spoor has a laborious pace that is off-putting. I was struggling with the tedious pace, and how long we would go without progressing the plot. It was almost like the murders weren't being treated as something to worry about at all. There was never a sense of urgency, and the scenes with police never felt like they were investigating much more than a purse snatching. The sub-plots about the hooker with a heart of gold, and the nerdy programmer were given as much weight by the film-makers. It is such an odd film that did little for me. There's also one moment at the end that I found laughably stupid, and I could not comprehend why they thought it made sense. There are elements of Spoor that are worth watching. It helped that I had constant hope I would be wrong about whodunnit, but I certainly can't see myself recommending it to anyone else. -
alexdeleonfilm23 February 2017SPOOR (Pokot) was a Competition film at the2017 Berlin film festival. My festival day started with a trip to West Berlin to see this Polish competition entry at the lavish ZOO Palace theater, the most luxurious movie house on Earth at this moment. Agnieszka Holland's SPOOR, (Polish, Czech, Slovak co prod) takes place in a village in Southern Poland near the Czech border. It was (for a change) a very good competition film after a string of losers, with an unusually strong performance by Agnieszka Mandat (64) as Duszejko, the older woman who lives alone with her beloved two dogs, Whitey and Leila. When they disappear mysteriously she sets out on a crusade to stop the murder of animals in this wildlife rich region. The heavy in the film is the local priest..During a church sermon where he is basically defending the right to kill animals on religious grounds she gets up and berates the assembled congregation with the words "How can you listen to this bullshit!" and storms out. A film that Brigitte Bardot will love as will all animal lovers everywhere. Agnieszka Mandat could be a strong contender for an actress Bär in a Berlin competition slate rich with strong feminine roles. Another strong entry in polish director Agnieszka Holland's extremely varied filmography. Ms. Holland, now 68, began her career in Poland as an assistant to Andrzej Wajda then left Poland to flee Communusm and made many landmark in English with top international stars. Holland is arguably the outstanding woman director active in the world today.
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thechocolatebird24 September 2019It was obvious from the start who the murderer was. The naive who enjoy the entire movie even think it was the animals!
No crook would even hunt or kill men's best friends for centuries, let alone for sport.
To all the shallow, self-entitled ones who agree the protagonist's actions of innocently baiting and using the trust of hunters to kill them in cold-blood and ways more vicious than just a bullet to the head, are justified, you have no sense of reality in the present day.
Look at how commercial farms are farming humans and animals on a large scale causing unnecessary harm to our environment, species and the planet and then let me know how a bunch of rural hunters compare to these legalised businesses. -
Me refiero a que en todos los sentidos es una película muy poco convencional. Utiliza todo tipo de recursos estilistas y ninguno de ellos para bien, para mi gusto. Tiene unos flashback que solo cuentan dos veces lo que esta contado ya. Tiene unos cambios de color que hacen que la película no se pueda tomar como drama, sino que sea más de autor. Es una película que se tira toda la película defendiendo una serie de ideas, pero que la culmina, defendiendo otras. No creo que esta película defienda al principio el ojo por ojo, sino al revés.
Los actores están muy bien. Todos tienen unos papeles muy especiales, muy marcados, nada convencionales y todos bordan sus papeles. Crees que realmente son ese tipo de personas.
La iluminación, para este tipo de película, está muy bien, es muy diferente de un momento a otro, pero es que la película, tiene muchos cambios de rumbo. Es una mezcla de cosas.
La directora, para mi gusto, no sabe muy bien hacia donde va. Hay momentos en los que me acuerdo de cuando se dice que la cámara tiene que pasar desapercibida, en este caso es al revés, me vuelve loco con tanto cambio de plano sin justificar que casi dejas de seguir la película para entender que hace. Es demasiado efectista en el mal sentido. Creo que no sabe bien hacia dónde quiere ir. Hay planos realmente horribles para enfatizar ciertas cosas, primerísimos primeros planos, que me sacan del todo de la película.
Es demasiado larga y muchos momentos aburrida.
Es una película muy especial no apta para todos los públicos, a los que les guste, la van a poner en un pedestal.
I mean that in all senses it is a very unconventional movie. Use all kinds of stylists resources and none of them for good, for my taste. It has a flashback that only counts twice what is already counted. It has some color changes that make the film can not be taken as drama, but rather as an author. It is a film that throws the whole movie defending a series of ideas, but that culminates it, defending others. I do not think that this movie defends at first the eye for an eye, but the other way around.
The actors are very good. All have very special roles, very marked, unconventional and all embroider their papers. You think they really are that kind of people.
The lighting, for this type of film, is very good, it is very different from one moment to another, but it is that the film has many changes of course. It is a mixture of things.
The director, for my taste, does not know very well where she is going. There are times when I remember when it is said that the camera has to go unnoticed, in this case it is the other way around, it drives me crazy with so much change of plan without justifying that you almost stop following the movie to understand what it does. It's too gimmicky in the bad way. I think he does not know where he wants to go. There are really horrible shots to emphasize certain things, very close-ups, that take me completely out of the movie.
It is too long and many times boring.
It is a very special film not suitable for all audiences, who like it, they will put it on a pedestal -
JvH489 March 2017Seen at the Berlinale 2017. Though it was marked "out of competition" for the Golden Bear, it deservedly got the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize anyway. Lead protagonist Janina is retired but still teaches English at a local school. Her pupils admire her, contrary to the school board who is less happy. She is a convinced vegetarian and frowns on hunting, which is the favorite sport of nearly all local villagers. Apart from her continuous struggle against needless hunting, there are also crime thriller elements involved when people are found dead from time to time without any tracks or other useful clues to help the police.
The movie is structured in chapters following the hunting calendar, something we see Janina stealing from the police office. She has frequent contacts there to file complaints over violations of same calendar. It is useless as the police does nothing about it, understandable with high placed policemen who are heavily involved in hunting themselves. Janina is persistent in her struggle for animal welfare, but her complaints are ignored. Her evenso persistent inclination to involve astrology in everything, hampers her believability and is often an excuse to send her away. And being an independent and retired woman (some think: useless) does not help either.
This movie is apparently about corruption, a popular theme in movies in former communist countries. It is a broader theme than only lust for money or a high position. Self-serving bureaucrats or bending rules for egoistic reasons, are also forms of corruption, maybe weaker variants but still. Clearly, the authorities (mainly the police) does not care much about enforcing rules around hunting, being heavily involved in hunting themselves, just like everyone in the elite. This includes the priest, who explains in one of his sermons how useful hunting actually is, actually a divine right given to humans. But Janina is not guiltless herself either, when she organizes a class "excursion" (that is what she calls it when a school administrator has comments) to find her missing dogs. It took place in the dark and within a forest, that is why her superiors are not amused. It may be a weaker form of corruption, I admit it, but still deviating from the rules and putting children unnecessarily at risk to serve her own private interests.
Director Agnieszka Holland won the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize for "opening new perspectives", awarded by the Berlinale 2017 International Jury. I'm at a loss what those "new perspectives" can be, maybe the fact that we are watching a whodunit thriller without noticing it along the way, that is until the nasty truth hits us near the finale. However, don't construe my being lost that I'm against this reward. The compelling story line throughout a bit over 2 hours, as well as how the lead performer carries the story, deserve a reward, whatever its earmark. -
me-altair11 August 2018Well we all understand u want to give a message to save our animal, they are nature creature !! but you could spend those money ( movie budget ) to feed some hungry animal,either you can funding the money to some animal saving organization,but u make some crap !! where animal took revenge, well in that case industrial criminal would die first for killing our nature !
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mjf190016 January 2018As an animal activist I should say that this review is a bit biased... nevertheless I think this movie is worth a watch since its beautiful sorroundings and story of love of nature are most endearing.
Thus, if you're interested in a story of someone who suffers from the consequences of corruption and takes justice into their own hands you won't be disappointed. I dare say that, when you finish watching, you'll feel content and fullfiled since the movie's focus - fighting what's bad in society - is overall achieved (I wouldn't put it as a revenge story, more as a cleaning the dirt tale). -
spookyrat13 February 2021Fancy a murder mystery wrapped way too tightly inside a feminist rant against hunting, with sideways deviations into astrology and fundamentalist rural Catholic perspectives? Then perhaps Polish director Agnieszka Holland's Spoor is just the vehicle for you. However I believe most viewers of this exceedingly odd movie, are unlikely to die wondering why it failed to gain entry to the Foreign Films category of the 2017 Academy Awards. Much as it looks quite attractive in sections, it is a film completely devoid of any sort of suspense, with a creaky, unfocused, disengaging plot, guaranteed to frustrate cinephiles, eager to appreciate a worthwhile narrative.
The storyline follows part - time teacher and full - time eco - warrior Duszejko, as a search for her beloved missing dogs, finds her becoming increasingly enmeshed in a hunt for a serial - killer, whilst at the same time spurring her to rail against the endemic hunting culture of her remote mountainous village near the Czech border and the faintly bizarre local religious practices encouraged by the coldly impersonal parish priest.
The story fails to flow and crucially the murders themselves are treated as rather minor affairs. Duszeiko herself is drawn as an eccentrically, whiney harpy; one who seems entirely deserving of the blasts she cops from the school's principal, for maverick actions involving her class. With one or two minor exceptions, all the males in the story are drawn boringly stereotypically, as bloodthirsty hunters. In the case of the police, they are seen as stumbling, bumbling, dunderheads, dismissing her worrying observations, as the crackpot theories of a crazy old woman. (Considering the amount of time and exposition, the film devotes to Duszeiko's astrological ramblings, I'd suggest they were only half - wrong.)
The irony in all this, is that the film's underlying premise concerning man's inhumanity towards animals is certainly worthy of a cinematic critique. But one, more interesting and nuanced than what we are delivered here in this torpid, glacially - paced whodunit, whose climax, offers us little in the way of surprises, or plot twists. -
zara41021 February 2020Olga Tokarczuk's "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead" is a remarkable, wise, humorous, and very finely layered novel. Unfortunately all of the subtlety of its characters, all of their lovable quirks, all the rhythm, and funnily enough, almost all of the spectacularity of nature and seasons is lost in the film. So why watch it?
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A great movie about a a strong yet gentle character who cannot accept people being cruel to animals or each other. She helps kids and mistreated women apart from her passion: wild life. She gets to know people in depth because she is open to them- never mind how she does it, the key words here are she does! The photography is exceptional too. Great acting! A refreshing movie for those of us who have been watching too many made-up/always-looking-perfect actors in Hollywood movies.
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thegreenblade14 July 2022This is a well made film with good acting. Unfortunately the astrological nonsense subverted the suspension of disbelief to the point that it was turned off about 40% of the way through. I am admittedly picky about such things but be warned: if you find astrology and people who believe in astrology annoying and irritating, this film will probably not be to your liking. Five stars for production quality and acting.
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frednorman-1372720 November 2022A fascinating film and offers a glimpse into post communist Polish society. I don't know much about Poland, I'm an American who has never visited Poland,, but from all that I've read and glean from the last 20 years , the corruption in communism didn't just disappear overnight with a change in government. It seems to be a problem for many Eastern European post communist countries. Highlighted here is not just the indifference and corruption of the police and the political establish meant , but also the horrible way in which wildlife is treated , but also, as a geriatrician, I think discrimination against elderly people is subtle and pronounced, not just in Eastern European countries, but also in the West. The brilliant acting shows the subtle ways in which the concerns of an elderly teacher are ignored, and even ridiculed. As to the anti-hunting bias, I'm not anti-hunting, in fact, hunters in the United States, are often strong conservationists, but I just think you did don't need to kill animals in order to enjoy nature. I used to have when I was young, long ago switched to wildlife photography.
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dharmathug14 August 2022I was not expecting much from this movie, in spite of knowing and liking the director's previous work. But I was completely drawn in to it, warming up slowly until totally engrossed.
Intially it was extremely difficult to see the brutal depictions of death and torture of animals but as it was the driving theme of the movie I stayed with it, and the reward was worth it. The ominous and deadly sounds of gunfire percolating the soundtrack added to the suspense and disgust, along with the chapter headings as the movie progresses.
One gets inexorably drawn into this "crazy woman's" life as she draws her neighbors into it too. Turns out she's one of the few sane people in a village of hunters and poachers, who slaughter wildlife indiscriminately and abuse women as a matter of course. A few exchanges with the village priest only serve to highlight the spirit-less and twisted views of man's dominion over nature, as interpreted from the Bible.
The acting overall is excellent, the cinematography and director's pacing is wonderful. The story unfolds organically and deliberately and we get to know the characters as the protagonist discovers them, as we do in life itself. The lead actress delivers a tour de force performance, without which the movie would suffer.
My one quibble is the very end, a little too pat and easy, marring the otherwise wholly believable story and delightfully satisfying revelations of this murder mystery. But in a way this story is also a fairy tale and as such, why not believe in a magical end? As with our ongoing destruction of the planet, if we move into our higher nature and capacities, our course can change. Believe, and then, as our heroine does, take action! -
Hayduke55513 September 2023A partially moral and somewhat darkly humorous thriller set in the stunning forest environment of a border settlement in the Table Mountains. The protagonist's perspective on hunting animals for meat and fur is thought-provoking, although the character may be perceived as somewhat eccentric. One might wonder if her unconventional viewpoint was a handicap or, in fact, a gift that allowed her to perceive the world differently than others. Unlike the book, the film doesn't adequately portray this aspect, resulting in a slight lack of psychological depth.
The film possesses a unique atmosphere that I appreciate. It seems that the murders are not the central theme but rather serve as a backdrop, portrayed without excessive drama. I found myself more concerned about the hunting scenes, which appear to depict real animal shootings. I somewhat naively convinced myself that these were something like archival hunting footage and that the animals didn't perish solely for the sake of the film's effect. This film is undoubtedly controversial in terms of its content and ideas and is likely to be disliked by hunters and members of the clergy. I liked it. -
Vehicular-Mans-Laughter28 December 2019Almost similar to a story of redemption, the "Lone" wolf must set out on a journey to achieve their purpose. Good one! recomended!