The Anchorage

Immersing the viewer in magnificent Swedish landscapes, this sober and meditative film reveals the beauty of nature and the beings that co-exist in harmony there: a Rousseauesque vision of a relationship between a human being and her environment. Ulla, the central character, relates in voiceover how it will be when it snows, but her expectations are disturbed with the arrival of a hunter, whose flashily colored clothing is out of place amidst the island’s greens and browns. Shot with a minimal crew, CalArts graduate C. W. Winter’s and photographer Anders Edström’s first fiction feature unobtrusively combines silence and the sounds of nature in contemplative sequences, sometimes adding snatches of songs about local folklore. Ultimately, the film—winner of Locarno’s Golden Leopard for Filmmaker of the Present—serves as an ode to a woman whose strength and grace are in perfect harmony with nature. —Locarno Film Festival