We begin the introduction of the film with a quote by Dante Alighieri's, The Devine Comedy. "Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost."
An eerie narrated voiceover starts off the film, where he is talking about mortality (played by Dan Shaked.)
Then we enter the scene in a scary looking forest, where a white dress is hanging from a tree. Why is it there and what does it mean? We see a fire burning in the distance. Quite obviously these are all symbolic to the storyline. An ominous feeling is creeping in. The forest took me on a somewhat emotional journey, with the play of colours and music, provoking some of my senses. I felt sadness. The forest portrays an ethereal vibe, with bent trees, entangled with each other. The music (by M. Nomized) is gripping and enhances the scene, as we watch a spirit woman appear (played by Carly Erin O'Neil.) Who is she? There is a scene where she is sitting on a tree trunk holding a strange mask in her hand. An interesting colour variant happens, which is very cleverly done. Half the screen is purple and is superimposed over the woman on the tree. There is no dialogue, which is something hard to pull off. But the visuals, the music and sound effects is all it really needs to push the narration. Then the scene changes to green, as the narrator comes through again. This time there is a man superimposed over the scene, in red, as the tone changes again. I actually appreciated the colour changes as they managed to change the tone along with it. The woman is dancing in the woods, in a white dress. The narrator comes through again. Some of what he says makes sense, then other times I have to admit I had no idea what he was talking about. The story develops as he tells the woman not to worry about him and to go and find her mother. This is very interesting and intriguing to the viewer. She finds a pocket watch buried beneath leaves on the forest floor. Who does it belong to and why is it there? The only issue I have is that I would have loved to hear the crunching of the leaves, instead of dead air. The next scene is dripping in sepia, which adds a sinister undertone that works well. We see more trees, earth, the natural environment, where we hear the sounds of birds chirping, there is life in the forest, which is in stark contrast to the dreadful melody playing in the background. The man is putting items into a tiny box. Why? The woman finds the box. I have to say, she seems like a very delicate woman, which was good characterisation. Whereas, when the man interlopes the scenes, he seems dark and deadly. He is surrounded in the colour green, superimposed over images of the forest. It works well to bring intrigue and mystery into the storyline, which is also great to add layering and texture to the film. There is a spider crawling through a web, is this symbolic? It could be. The narration takes a terrible turn, as he talks about his own death. A wolf appears. Another symbolic representation of perhaps the predator and prey? Or the darkness within?
Overall, there isn't much happening, however there are many elements that help to elaborate the film, enough to keep the viewer interested. There is no dialogue, which wasn't an issue, as I believe the narration is enough to carry some of the information, in a somewhat convoluted way. The experimentation of colour is very intriguing and artfully delivered. Cinematography was great, with many different angled shots. There isn't much of a storyline as such, but we get hints. So, pay attention or you might miss a vital point. As this is more of a poetic and atmospheric type of film, I'd recommend it to perhaps art students to interpret, or anyone wanting to see something different, that isn't horror. More supernatural I would say. Great stuff! I really enjoyed the movement of this one.
Thank you, Martin Del Carpio for allowing me to review your film.
Reviewed by Del Gibson.
