A woman attempts to sort through her past while also dealing with the traumatic repercussions of surviving a terrorist attack in Elisabeth Scharang’s elliptical film “Woodland,” based on Doris Knect’s 2015 WALD. A non-linear slow burn that’s more interested in unpacking the layers of trauma that Marian (Brigette Hobmeier) is dealing with than outright showing the aftermath of the terrorist attack, Scharang’s film works best when it’s narrowed in on the small farming community she returns to, less so when it skirts around her present-day relationships and the actual shooting that serves as the inciting incident for her trip back. 

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It’s also more concerned with the configurations of three people who had been romantically involved before Marian up and left the town that she grew up in, abandoning her mother in the process.

Continue reading ‘Woodland’ Review: Elisabeth Scharang’s Mediation On Trauma Is Quiet & Contemplative [TIFF] at The Playlist.