This is sure to be a polarizing film. More a montage than a story, with plenty of very long, unhurried (and beautifully shot) nature shots, this film depicts a version of humanity that hibernates through the winter, and is just slightly more a part of the natural world. People are still people, they don't act like animals, they have dinners around dinner tables and go to concerts. But there's no line between "civilization" and "nature"... goats and raccoons wander through the houses, roosters leap on the dining room table to pick what's left of a massive pre-hibernation feast, and people describe whatever group of people they happen to cohabit with as families, as parents and siblings. "Once when we woke up I had a new older sister", someone relates. "We had no idea where she came from." Cows appear to be the dominant species, and are often seen wandering by.
A very large part of the film is simply very long nature shots, as you might see in any nature documentary, except without even voice over. Humans occasionally wander through these, part of the landscape. And, really, there's no plot whatsoever—just nature photography punctuated by fairly realistic scenes of the inhabitants of this only slightly unfamiliar world talking about their lives. I don't even think there's any dialogue for, I don't know, the first 30 minutes? Much of the beginning is just the scenes of nature, which include humans as they might include any other animal.
I found the whole thing really beautiful, and well-made, for what it was. The people seem true-to-life, as they describe a world both familiar and off-kilter from ours. Anyone hoping for a coherent narrative, or even much dialogue, is going to be very, very bored, and I'm sure later when I do my usual post-review search to see what other people thought, I will find a lot of people who hated it—but a few who lived it. I loved it, probably enough to kick it up into "honorable mention" category. It's unique, that's for sure.
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