17/46
Skalde lives in a small rural community, far away from a world that may no longer exist. She is an intruder in her own home, having been born to an “outsider” and thus carrying a social stigma that she cannot easily shake off. Through her loyalty to the community’s rules, she has earned the respect of the village elder. However, when she encounters a mysterious… Read all. “Skalde” (Mathilde Bundschuh) is just about tolerated by her rural community, having been born to a stranger (Susanne Wolf) in this close-knit, introspective village. Her community functions on a barter system – she trades manure with her neighbors, and thanks to the kind but skilled assistance of local elder “Pesolt” (Ulrich Matthes) and the more lively assistance of “Gösta” (Karin Neuhäuser), they get by. However, all of this is called into question when the village dogs start behaving erratically, just as she encounters a young girl named “Meisis” (Viola Hinz) who has come out of the forest and whom they take in. The extremely superstitious population decides that she is some sort of harbinger of evil and demands that she be sent away, but “Skalde” is adamant that she is just an ordinary young girl and refuses to cooperate. This earns her the enmity of a population that now largely avoids her. Could it now be time for “Skalde” to consider whether this is the best place for her and the girl to live – especially as the murmurings of her former neighbors become a little more ominous? This film is set in the present day, which makes the plot all the more impactful when it comes to aspects of a local wolf mystique that seems so anachronistic coming from people who routinely use cars and cell phones! Sophia Bösch manages the pacing well, and Bundschuh’s very “less is more” delivery helps create an atmospheric drama that is at times suspenseful, at times gripping – and the film never quite gives them, or us, the answers we might expect.
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