Berg 2021

18 May 2023 by CinemaSerf

Every now and again, we see three characters trekking through the barren wilderness that is the mountainous region of the Slovenian Triglav National Park. They provide the loosest of connections to the next eighty minutes of this rather dryly assembled collection of images of the peaks and valleys that reach almost 10,000 feet. Filmed entirely in monochrome, and using the audio of wind and rain and animals to good effect, director Joke Olthaar offers us a sequence of locked-off or very brief moving images that demonstrate the danger, beauty and the perils of life amongst the cold and the frequently hostile weather conditions (unless you're an ibex!). There isn't a script to speak of, it's largely left to this compilation of photo-style views to convey to us the sheer power and unforgiving nature of the elements. There is a superb, extended, storm scene that had me reaching for a blanket and by the end I did appreciate rather better just how vulnerable mankind is when facing the wrath of nature. I also found that after a while I started to see human and animal shapes in the rock formations - a seal, a face, a turtle - quite bizarre! Sadly, though, the black and white nature of the presentation and the very static, rather unimaginative, style of delivery did rob the thing of potency after about half an hour, and the relentless bleakness of the film started to wash over me a bit. It does feature some impressive (astonishingly obtained) photography but the odd splash of colour and perhaps some sparing narrative might have brought it alive more. It is worth a watch and a big screen does more justice to the scenery - it just could have been a bit more engaging.