Woodland High: A Poetic Journey Through Nature & Female Identity

Manon Coubia's film Woodland High, set in a remote Alpine refuge, explores nature, endangered species, and female identity across seasons. Shot on tactile 16mm, it blends documentary-like specificity with a gently scripted narrative.

Anna’s Spring at the Mountain Refuge

Set in the crisp initial flush of spring, the movie’s opening third is centered on Anna (Salomé Richard, star of Coubia’s 2023 brief “Complete Night”), a thirtysomething regional who has actually done a number of stints at the haven, and to whom this impressive region is simply home. He’s on the lookout for the capercaillie, an unusual kind of grumble quickly vanishing from the area, and a quasi-mythical theme running with the film– a symbol of a natural yet progressively endangered means of life.

Regardless of its discreetness of range, the deliberate, spell-casting rhythm and sensory density of “Forest High” need theatrical exhibit, as do its ruggedly magnificent mountainscapes, shot on tactile 16mm film by DP Robin Fresson– it’s difficult to visualize the movie having rather the very same strangely wrapping up top quality on streaming systems.

Manon Coubia’s Vision & Documentary Poetics

“Woodland High” is inspired by Coubia’s own ten years of experience as a warden at a hill haven: The Towering landscape so ravishingly checked out below has formerly been indispensable to her brief movie job, especially the 2016 Locarno champion “The Volume of Time.” Though a gently scripted narrative is woven via proceedings below– especially in its last and third area, an intimate two-hander– the film is chiefly hip to with documentary-like specificity to environmental details and appearances.

Shot over four periods of real-life activity at a functioning refuge, with Coubia’s actors interacting with actual hikers travelling through the location, it’s a bracing and particular job: While its triptych structure and changing focus on various forms and phases of female identity most conveniently welcome comparisons with Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women,” there’s absolutely nothing quite like it in the arthouse market.

Hélène’s Solitude & Female Identity

Like Hélène, she’s in her fifties, though her background is extremely different: As soon as a well-to-do spouse and mom, currently single and empty-nested, she’s living life on her own terms for the first time. The alone-but-not-loneliness paid for by the small, snow-licked hut is thus specifically what she’s after: As she contentedly often tends the fire place, reviews her publication and cuddles into bed with her puffer layer on, “Woodland High” arises as a kind of anti-“Shining,” a testament to the recovery advantages of women seclusion.

Specialist representatives might be inspired by the film’s unique jury reference following its best in Berlin’s Perspectives competitors for first attributes. (Rai Cinema International Distribution is taking care of sales.) Despite its modesty of range, the calculated, spell-casting rhythm and sensory density of “Woodland High” need theatrical exhibition, as do its ruggedly magnificent mountainscapes, fired on tactile 16mm film by DP Robin Fresson– it’s difficult to envision the movie having quite the exact same strangely enveloping quality on streaming platforms.

Life in the Remote Alpine Haven

There are no luxuries and only one of the most necessary comforts available at the remote Alpine haven where “Woodland High” is established: Warm water runs just a couple of hours a day, the soup served for dinner is blandly nourishing and thin, and do not ask where to bill your phone, because you’ll be met a solid yet polite rejection. It’s an area for passing walkers to rest, not to holiday– though for the ladies that run the area, across different periods and weather conditions, it’s someplace to strike and remain pause on life, and possibly to lastly hear on your own in the silence. Manon Coubia’s lovely, whispering very first function is for that reason not a movie of major significant incidents and revelations, though its payoff is clear and cleansing as a hill spring.

Set in the crisp very first flush of springtime, the film’s opening third is fixated Anna (Salomé Richard, celebrity of Coubia’s 2023 brief “Full Evening”), a thirtysomething neighborhood that has done numerous stints at the sanctuary, and to whom this awesome area is simply home. Keeping that knowledge has actually come a certain restlessness: She intends for this to be her last season doing the job, though a light dalliance with good-looking taking a trip birdwatcher Antoine (Arthur Marbaix) maintains things fascinating. He’s on the lookout for the capercaillie, a rare sort of grumble rapidly disappearing from the area, and a quasi-mythical concept going through the movie– an icon of a natural yet significantly threatened way of life.

All the while, “Forest High” feels happily haunted by the souls of those who have actually passed through its modest lumber place, which stays changeless and uncaring to contemporary advancements and pressures in the lives left down below. Aided by the tranquil control of Fresson’s cam, the perseverance and invisible economic climate of Théophile Gay-Mazas’s editing and enhancing and the glassy, wind-brushed mirrors of François Chamaraux’s score, the assured light touch of Coubia’s filmmaking preserves an ambience of unromanticized yet tranquil get rid of from the globe– as if there’s just an added hour or two in the day, and no wonderful need to fill up the moment.

Summer Season & Narrative Insights

With summertime comes the older, much more careworn Hélène (Aurélia Petit) to take over the task in brisk, practised style gained from years of temporary routine job. Yet there’s enjoyment in it as well. This is the sanctuary’s busiest season, producing the movie’s most vivid, babbling section, and Hélène adapts well to the rhythm and quantity of whatever company rolls in, while occasionally retreating to the timbers for some respite. Coubia’s remarkable focus are typically unanticipated– the mystery of what occurred to one booked-in household of walkers that never ever shows up amidst a heavy rainstorm is left hanging– while lower-stakes scenes are followed through to rewarding, empirical conclusions. One lovely sequence sees an exterior lunch at the lodge turn into an unplanned dance celebration with an online artist vocal singing some happily inauthentic bossa nova.

Manon Coubia’s lovely, whispering very first function is as a result not a film of major dramatic occurrences and discoveries, though its benefit is clear and cleansing as a mountain spring.