Scenes from a Forest

A young woman in a dark, shiny raincoat is alone, underway in the woods. Later, while walking she will give a long interview. A profile of “Alva Aktivismus” from Leipzig forms from the catalogue of personal and political questions that she answers a young man and his small recording team. The monosyllabic actor serves as a projection surface and model. A woman’s voice from off screen offers another, multifaceted (life) story.

Thus, right from the start, Annja Krautgasser’s Scenes from a Forest plays with several levels—and can be described as a small compendium of forms of filmic expression. It begins with silent slow-motion takes. Following static, landscape panoramas are a plan sequence of horizontal movements, hand-camera actions, and close-ups, behind which the environment disappears. In a scant half hour, the film plays through various genres.
Scenes from a Forest is a literary essay, (fictional) portrait of a woman, landscape study, and nature documentary, while also containing trace elements of drama, horror, and mystery.

The medium and its history are also ultimately discovered as points of reference when Krautgasser refers explicitly to pre-images at three points: the long interview scene is identified as a re-enactment of the interview in Jean-Luc Godard’s One Plus One. The other two references are the pilgrimage scene that Ben Pointeker directed from Forst by Ascan Breuer, Ursula Hansbauer and Wolfgang Konrad; and the demon invocation from Tropical Malady by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Agnès Hoffmann, author of the novel "so viele Tage", which provides the off-screen texts, has, incidentally, already published on this process in Leipzig’s Nachsteller Verlag.
(Isabella Reicher)

Translation: Lisa Rosenblatt

Orig. Title
Waldszenen
Year
2015
Country
Austria
Duration
30 min
Category
Avantgarde/Arts
Orig. Language
German
Subtitles
English
Downloads
Waldszenen (Image)
Waldszenen (Image)
Credits
Director
Annja Krautgasser, aka: [n:ja]
Concept & Realization
Annja Krautgasser, aka: [n:ja]
Cinematography
Martin Putz
Camera Assistant
Wolfgang Oblasser
Sound Design
Peter Kutin
Text Author
Agnes Hoffmann
Postproduction
Bernhard Schlick
Production
Verein OCCER
Actor/Actress
Alexander Ebeert, Julia Zöller
Voice
Julia Zöller
Production Assistance
Anna Spanlang
Assistant
Gerald Straub
Casting
Anna Spanlang
Supported by
Innovative Film Austria, Land Tirol, ÖBF
Available Formats
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
DCP 2K flat (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,85
Sound Format
Dolby 5.1.
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour
Festivals (Selection)
2015
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
Wien - VIS Vienna Independent Shorts