Starring Blanche Gardin, The Incredible Snow Woman captures a woman on the edge, presenting a radical, empowering perspective on how to live out the final moments of your life.
Last night L’incroyable femme des neiges (The Incredible Snow Woman) premiered at the Urania Kino on a freezing cold Berlin evening, with the snow covered ground outside the cinema in keeping with the film we were about to see. The screening was completely packed, predominantly with excited French speakers who buoyantly awaited the new Sébastien Betbeder movie, starring the famous French comedian Blanche Gardin. Gardin was clearly a fan favourite, bringing down the house in her performance of Coline Morel, a researcher and polar expert who wrestles bears, camps on ice floats, and faces a near death experience whilst travelling solo across Greenland.
Morel’s adventurous feats are the least of her worries, however. In fact, these daring explorations into the heart of some of the most treacherous landscapes on earth do not seem to faze her when compared with her personal, existential and relational issues. After returning back to her native French village at the start of the film – ostensibly to write a memoir in the seclusion and solitude of her family home – she finds out she has not only been fired for gross misconduct from her polar expedition, but has also been left by her partner of 18 years over the phone. We also find out that our intrepid explorer has very little time left to live, facing a battle with what we imagine to be cancer from her habitual cigarette smoking.
Morel is unable to cope with the unravelling of so many of life’s fundamental pillars, and is pushed over the edge when faced with an encounter with her childhood sweetheart Christophe, who is now happily married with a child and a stable job. She vows herself to silence after a drunken escapade to Christophe’s house which ends up in jail, and decides to take a pilgrimage to her father’s cabin, accompanied by her two brothers Lolo (Bastien Bouillon) and Basile (Philippe Katerine), who are grappling with their sister’s homecoming as best they can. With her life falling apart, Morel at least has the support of her loving siblings, who are able to show affection and help even in the face of their sister’s erratic, compulsive behaviour.
From this French village in the Jura mountains, Morel decides to make her way to Greenland where she encounters not only mesmerising landscapes, but also a long lost sense of purpose, identity and fulfillment in one of the last remaining Inuit hunting communities in the world. Greenland’s glaciers are shown in gorgeous shots, with cinematographer Pierre-Hubert Martin doing an incredible job of capturing the truly magnificent backdrop.
The film captures a woman on the edge, presenting a radical, empowering perspective on how to live out the final moments of your life. Alongside the humorous aspects of the movie, Betbeder presents a philosophical reflection on varying societal attitudes towards death, and although at times the acting was a little cheesy, overall the film was a beautiful contemplation on human purpose and connection.
Film Fest Report is an accredited media at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.
