[CRITICAL] IN THE FORESTS OF SIBERIA

To read also, our second opinion on IN THE FORESTS OF SIBERIA

The silence, the calming, the simple pleasure of being alone in the face of oneself, to be free from all constraint… who has never dreamed of from afar the roar of the world, to stop the incredible race against time ? The writer Sylvain Tesson has made and has told in his book of the same name. The director Nebbou has adapted it, with his agreement, and even its dubbed.

Raphaël Personnaz is so Teddy, milf loose everything and share it in a corner of the Earth clean of all civilization, that few men can achieve and sustain. While none of the inhabitants does not understand his urgent need to come as far when they are forced to live and dream only of leaving, we see Teddy face of extreme living conditions, the storm, the cold, the bears. He moved his small cabin, his refuge, the shore of Lake Baikal. A lake that lives, that loves, that Teddy hollow to bathe or drink.

IN THE FORESTS OF SIBERIA is a head-to-head with nature, which recalls in many respects Into The Wild of Sean Penn or Wild de Jean-Marc Vallée. The director, met with his interpreter on the occasion of the presentation of the film, said to be also inspired by Dersu Uzala of Akira Kurosawa. More interested in the idea that Teddy is left with a quest for interiority, for only one reason, and not because of a dramatic event. Raphaël Personnaz is a wonder of simplicity in this silent role, who offered him the opportunity to regain an innocence and a let go to cope with the demands of the director and to his own emotions.

Introspection is never easy to shoot, nor even to look for the viewer. A filmmaker does not always give rise to an emotion by filming a close up of a face or adding a voice-over narrative. Now the spectator in a form of voltage, non-anxiety-provoking, but in awakening, Nebbou has attempted to find a location accuracy between the narration and contemplation of the beauty of the place. Feeling the need to get away from the book, he added the character of Teddy the one of Aleksei, Russian enigmatic (Yevgeny Sidikhine). This bias gives him the opportunity to confront two realities, as he very well knew how to do it in The footprint of the angel or The other Dumas.

“Far from the roar of the world, In the Forests of Siberia is a journey naturalist very realistic, but the emotion remains at the surface of Lake Baikal.”

But this process does not work for IN THE FORESTS OF SIBERIA. First of all, because of the coming of Aleksei in the narrative, changes the shape and the spirit, and away from the real subject of his hero. We can certainly consider that the path to self is also thanks to the encounter with other characters in extraordinary situations. But the film’s purpose, it is especially this part of the childhood, buried under responsibilities and a life of civilized man, that Teddy is gone to search for as far. See Raphaël Personnaz ice skating, screaming alone in front of the lake, or swim naked like he was 10 years old is very moving.

The second reason is that this unlikely encounter fails to trigger empathy. The director shows the viewer a man who is exiled for cowardice, refusing to assume his acts. He pays his debt to society in an indirect way -a life for another. It is not affected by its history, without a great deal of interest, with the unpleasant feeling that the director and his co-writer David Oelhoffen (also a director of Far from men) do not leave the viewer any choice, self-righteous and redeemer, to forgive.

As for the music of the composer Ibrahim Maalouf, it is superfluous, breaking the rhythm of IN THE FORESTS OF SIBERIA and taking the not on landscapes, which are sufficient in themselves. As A comparison, the music of The Seasons didn’t before, providing a showcase for images, and not the contrary. Lake and trumpets are not necessarily good bedfellows.

IN THE FORESTS OF SIBERIA is a journey naturalistic, very realistic. But its slow pace and the exchanges franco-Russian make it also sometimes annoying. Nebbou acknowledges that this film is an experience and if it doesn’t fit in, we’re screwed. Without going that far, we must admit that the emotion stays on the surface of Lake Baikal. As to suggest, subliminally perhaps, that true freedom is to stay with the guys, hunt, drink a lot of vodka and remake the world, one could be tempted to take a easy shortcut by saying that this is because there is no woman nearby !

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