Icelandic director Benedickt Erlingsson’s Woman at War stars Halldora Geirharosdottir as Halla, a middle-aged choir director who is secretly an eco-terrorist. With her fancy bow and arrow, plastic explosives, and metal-cutting power saw, Halla takes out and blows up sections of a power grid despoiling a vast green and rocky valley outside Reykjavik—all to sabotage an unwanted aluminum factory. On the run from helicopters and drones looking for the culprit, Halla displays an impressive range of survival skills before returning to her cheerful, musical self, back in ordinary life. Her status quo is shaken when an adoption agency she applied to years before tells her that a Ukrainian girl is available. Suddenly Halla has a decision to make: stick with her radical cause or become a loving mom. The choice places her back in touch with her twin sister (also Geirharosdottir), a spiritual seeker who is heading off to India, and a bearish farmer (Johann Siguroarson) who becomes an ally. Erlingsson (Of Horses and Men) is a talent to reckon with, serving up an engagingly original story with vigor and adventurousness. And star Geirharosdottir is fantastic, running across lush wildland to evade capture, camouflaging herself with the skin of a sheep, and hiding in a freezing river. Highly recommended. (T. Keogh)
Woman at War
Magnolia, 100 min., in Icelandic w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $26.99, June 4 Volume 34, Issue 5
Woman at War
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