31/45
Skalde lives in a small rural community, far from a world that may no longer exist. She is an outsider in her own home, having been born to a “stranger” mother and thus marked by a social stigma that is not easy to shake off. By showing loyalty to the community codes, she has earned the respect of the village elders. However, when she encounters a mysterious… Read more. “Skalde” (Mathilde Bundschuh) is actually tolerated by her rural community, having been born to a stranger (Susanne Wolf) in this close-knit and introspective village. Their society functions on a barter system: she trades manure with her neighbours and thanks to the friendly, but qualified, support of the local elder “Pesolt” (Ulrich Matthes) and the more combative support of “Gösta” (Karin Neuhäuser) they get by. However, all of this is called into question when the village dogs begin to behave erratically just as she comes across a young girl, “Meisis” (Viola Hinz), who has arrived from the forest and is taken in. The hugely superstitious populace decides she is some sort of omen of evil and demands she be sent away, but “Skalde” is determined to believe she is just another ordinary young girl and refuses to cooperate. This earns her the enmity of a populace who now largely reject her. Could it now be time for “Skalde” to consider whether this is the best place for her and the young girl to live, especially now that the murmurings from her former neighbours are becoming a little more menacing? This film is set in the present day, which makes the plot all the more effective when it addresses aspects of a local lupine mysticism that seems so anachronistic coming from people who routinely use cars and mobile phones. Sophia Bösch handles the pacing well, and Bundschuh’s less-is-more acting style helps create an atmospheric drama that’s at times tense and at others gripping, and the film never gives them, or us, the answers we might expect.