Woman at War

Movie theatres usually discourage talking but our latest series is designed to encourage it — before and after (not during) the show. Aimed at film lovers 55+ (but open to all), Talking Pictures offers audience-friendly festival films, refreshments, and an open invitation to chat about our shared experience of the movie. Tickets are just $10. Bring a buddy and get two tickets for $16!

From the opening scene — in which 50-ish Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir), choirmaster and stalwart of the community, uses a bow and arrow to destroy an electrical tower — you know you are in for a treat with this quirky, visually splendid work. Halla’s passionately enacted secret eco-warrior campaign against an energy corporation encroaching on Iceland’s impeccable landscape is decidedly at odds with her day-to-day life, doubly so now that she has received notice that the adoption she applied for some years back has been approved and a Ukrainian orphan is on the way. Can she reconcile motherhood and fighting the good fight, no matter the possible consequences of her crimes?

Director Benedikt Erlingsson (Of Horses and Men) brings his skewed sense of humour and remarkable eye for the visually offbeat to bear on Halla’s dilemma. In an inspired touch, he even recruits a gaggle of musicians and singers to periodically serve as a Greek chorus for Halla’s journey, to charming effect…

Delightful… Is there anything rarer than an intelligent feel-good film that knows how to tackle urgent global issues with humour as well as a satisfying sense of justice?

Jay Weissberg, Variety

An artful fable that examines what it really means to save the world, Woman at War is the rarest of things: A crowd-pleaser about climate change.

David Ehrlich, IndieWire

Joyously audacious.

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal