Directed by Mindaugas Survila. Reviewed by Paul Sorrelll

As a keen wildlife photographer, I’d been looking forward to this film after seeing it listed in the 2018 NZ International Film Festival line-up. I wasn’t disappointed. Although its precise location is not disclosed, the film takes us into the heart of the northern European woodlands and into the lives of the creatures that inhabit them.

The Ancient Woods marks a departure from conventional nature documentaries in a number of ways. First, there is no voice-over or musical score. The images are accompanied by nature’s own soundtrack — the humming of insects, the roaring of stags, the crash of thunder — but always carefully choreographed and amplified for dramatic effect.

Second, it lacks the standard winter-to-spring sequence, where the seasonal round is used to illustrate a complete life cycle. Nor does it shy away from the human factor — the film opens in a snow-covered farmyard, with the farmer cutting up turnips to feed out to the wild deer which approach shyly.

But the rest of the film is given over to the animals. Deep in the woods, a pair of male capercaillie square off to the accompaniment of aggressive clicking and popping sounds, and then fall to beating each other with their wings. While this hectic soundtrack is running, the camera drifts over to a pair of badgers pulling bundles of straw into their sett. We are shown big animals — wolves, elk and bison — and also the smallest — bees, ants and an evocative close-up of nectar-seeking insects jostling on a flowerhead.

Often creatures are preparing to mate (like the capercaillie) and conflict is in the air. Here again, our expectations are overturned as we are given a glimpse of a solitary stag, its antlers decked with foliage, rather than the standard doco image of two testosterone-laden males clashing horns. Often, breaking all the rules, the action is shot through a screen of trees, or out-of-focus greenery, so that the drama of the woods is suggested rather than served up to us on a plate.

Lithuanian biologist-turned-filmmaker Survila uses a cinematic immersion technique to place us directly in the Baltic woodlands, letting us slowly absorb our surroundings rather than manipulating his audience with schmaltzy music or breathless commentary. The Ancient Woods is a deeply engaging film that, far from sanitising the natural world, allows us privileged access to its lively inhabitants for the 86 minutes of its running time. Highly recommended. 

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 231 October 2018: 29