RIGA IFF: Mežzeme

Elizabete Šaranga
Mežzeme
Wald
AT
2023, 100', de
We recommend from the age of 16 The most difficult thing is to start from the beginning. This is how Mariana feels, through whose fingers everything she could have wished for: fulfillment in journalism, deep love and time to realize her professional ambitions. The desired life was cut short by a terrorist attack in the center of Vienna. Not considering herself a victim, rather a witness, and experiencing traumatic flashbacks, Mariana cannot stay in the city and returns to her grandparents' country house in the forest. Here she seems to feel safe, spending her days in the forest and reconnecting with her former home. However, the smoldering past reasserts itself when Marian encounters Gertie and Franz from their youth. Will the forest help to find reconciliation with the past? It is possible that in early childhood we felt the safest - we try to return to it and capture this feeling of shelter again and again. Is this what we want? Austrian director Sharang based the film on Doris Knecht's popular novel "Forest" (2015) and on her personal memories of experiencing a terrorist attack in Vienna in 2020, in which four people were killed and 23 were injured. Screened at festivals in Toronto, Seattle and more, the atmospheric and introspective drama about settling the scores from the past looks simple at first glance - a successful woman returns to where she started her life - but the director adds additional layers of meaning in this masterclass in the anatomy of trauma. The biggest discovery for RIGA IFF viewers will be the German actress Brigite Hobmeier – her character is so similar to Diana Kruger's discord-torn heroine in the award-winning revision of trauma "The Disappearing" (2017). Hobmeier's emotional amplitude is truly full-blooded - she is flesh, blood and a troubled heart; so much like us.

Recommended age: 16+
Screen language: German
Subtitle language: English
Synonymous translation: Latvian
Duration of screening: 100 min
Place for a wheelchair: there is

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