Our unnamed narrator (Martina Gedeck) travels with friends to a cabin in the Austrian mountains. The friends walk back to town and leave her with a dog, Lynx. The next morning, the narrator wakes up alone and finds that an invisible wall has sealed her off from the rest of civilization, leaving her with only Lynx, a cat and a cow.
Over the next 100 minutes or so the narrator sets about making the best of her new-found life—how she was walled off and what happened to the rest of humanity is never explained—as she battles loneliness, harsh physical conditions and despair.
Despite an air of hopelessness surrounding The Wall, ennui never quite sets in, as we become drawn into the woman’s daily life, and her slow rejection of society, if for no other reason than society as we know it no longer exists. The subtle changes in Gedeck’s expression say a ton, and her near-constant voiceover—which is a little too constant—fills in the gaps her face doesn’t.
The photography is beautiful, and Lynx the dog will become your companion as much as he is the woman’s, even as she slowly loses her sense of self and becomes a part of the mountain.
THE WALL
Directed by Julian Pölsler
With Martina Gedeck
The Screen
108 min.
NR
Santa Fe Reporter