When my daughter and I, two English teachers carrying one hundred years of a love of reading, and forty-five years of trying to share that love with hundreds of students, went on a three week literary tour of Great Britain, we each wrote of our experiences every day — she, on a blog — <apilgriminbritain.wordpress.com> — and I, to my patient partner across the pond who said the daily reports were like “visiting England in stereo.” We heard from many friends who told us that we had given them a virtual holiday abroad, for which they were grateful and delighted. As were we.
Also, as a “kind of fun thing,” my daughter submitted her blog to the
2019 Illinois Woman’s Press Association Mate E. Palmer Professional Communications Contest, and was told a few weeks ago that she had won third place. She, and the other winners, will be feted with a luncheon and a few moments in the spotlight for their fresh and inviting stories.
My teacher/daughter has been not only a great travel companion, but an inspiration for creating this blog. Not because I have any aspirations as a prize-winning writer, but because it gives me great pleasure to imagine that others might enjoy, through me, some experiences they have not been able to have. I don’t want to assume that anything I write about is particularly unique or not within reach of others; rather, that they might be moved to repeat the experience in their own way, in their own time, or along a tangential line that brings similar happiness, inspiration, and/or reflection.
In a few weeks, I will attend “The Roger Ebert Film Festival,” co-founded in 1999 by the Chicago Sun-Times Pulitzer Prize winning film critic, the late Roger Ebert, with his “beloved wife, business partner, and fellow film lover,” Chaz Ebert. The fest’s mission is to take a second look at “four star” films that have not gotten, in Ebert’s opinion, the recognition they deserve. <http://www.ebertfest.com/history-mission>
It is this festival that has also motivated me to begin “Deb Shares,” as I hope to communicate with you my impressions of the movies I see there, as well as other “first time film fest goer experiences” that I may have, for example, attending the panel discussions; being among hundreds of film aficionados; returning to the University of Illinois campus; being part of a Road Scholar tour group; cuing up at and sampling the wares of the food trucks that line the street outside the Virginia Theater; as well as, okay, I admit it, the chance spotting of a “movie star” at a hotel bar.
But, I do not want to wait — in fact, I cannot wait — until then to introduce this blog because I just saw a near perfect film: “Woman at War,” directed by
Benedikt Erlingsson of Iceland (2018) — that will only be here in Chicago for a few weeks at the Music Box Theater, and it is, in my rating system, a film one must RUN to see.
Hugo Van Herpe’s summary on IMDB reads, “Halla, a woman in her forties, declares war on the local aluminum industry to prevent it from disfiguring her country. She risks all she has to protect the highlands of Iceland-but the situation could change with the unexpected arrival of a small orphan in her life.” <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7279188/plotsummary>
That “teaser” is intriguing enough, but I’d like to add here some color, some details and observations that made “Woman at War” so personally significant and powerful: A harrowing look at hands-on environmental justice that requires deep courage and a little crazy; random appearances in the Icelandic wilds of musicians and singers; (if you are from Chicago, it’s reminiscent of the Mucca Pazza band, only trios instead of their usual marching orchestra); a yogi master twin sister; a scene of swimming in a public pool fed by one of Iceland’s near-ubiquitous natural hot springs; an “assumed” cousin who uses his sheep farm “for the cause” in unexpected ways; heart-stopping police chases and drone hunters; the spidery arms and web of US hegemony; two hours of not being aware that the people on the screen are actors, or even being aware of a screen; the profound adjustment motherhood requires; the profound depth of sisterhood; the passionate devotion of women to the survival of the species.
One of my friends said, rather tongue in cheek. “I don’t know. It doesn’t sound very believable.” Which for me is part of the magic of “Woman at War.” I have had only mythology to form my picture of Iceland. And now this beautiful film. It made me wonder, “Is Iceland the last frontier?” “Are women with bows and arrows the last chance to save the planet?” “Is this film an affirmation or a rebuttal of the current STEM and STEAM programs in the schools?” “Where would Halla be and what would she do without singing and yoga and water and open spaces and the promise of a child?”
My sisters, my brothers, my children and grandchildren and their grandchildren, this is a movie for you and for the world — a challenge, an adventure, a dream, a fantasy, a morality tale that begs to be believed and re-enacted.
RUN to see it. I’m going again today.
Deb Shares 