This movie was a final project from Århus Film-school (Super8). I found a second hand dvd from 2012 with this and other movies, finished in 2009 and 2011 and I would like to review them as a small help to promote up and coming directors (though they are a bit dated now). I like the obscure, the creative and the different, so bringing reviews like this, however small the effect may be, helps bring focus on new quality and artistic creativity.
Anna is an 18 year old danish girl, who travels to a remote house in the Swedish forests, to visit her dad. The house is empty and she starts to look around. She finds some old drawings and photographs that makes her remember parts of her childhood. She encounters a rabbit in the woods and is led to a lake, where a woman is bathing. She photographs her but is later approached by the woman. They become friendly and she seems to pop up near the house again and again. Anna starts to feel attracted to her sexually, but the woman rejects her. When her father finally arrives, the truth about the relation between the three of them, is finally revealed to Anna.
The director certainly has a personal style and a strong touch to every scene. She handles many different artistic styles and does a healthy job of combining them from scene to scene. Particular the lesbian fantasy scene, with the shot directly into strong light is handled very well without any flares. But the extremely high ambition is almost too much, because when the sparse dialog appears, the standard is lowered considerably. I actually wished that there would have been no dialog at all. The often dreamy style, would lend itself perfectly. The running time is around 26 minutes, so there is room to both have a nice plot and a good story and it succeeds well with both except the many different styles slightly steals the attention and too much focus is on artistic expression, than on securing a balanced and well executed story. But still, there are som very interesting and very well executed scenes that looks very promising for the new director.
I was very surprised at the level of quality of this movie. It has the typical Nordic feel to it, but at the same time the director has spend a good deal of time coming up with new and interesting artistic ideas to push the envelope a bit. That is bold and daring for "newbie".
Rating: 6/10
Note: Title translated by me, no official english title as far as i know (original: "Mellem træerne")