The Forest

Directors Hendrik Cronje and Mari Molefe van Heerden‘s brilliantly shot post-apocalyptic drama The Forest takes place seven years after a terrible nuclear war. In it, we meet Heinrich (Wessels), a survivor travelling alone through the seemingly deserted world he now finds himself in.

Moving through the wilderness, foraging, gathering and otherwise surviving day by day, Heinrich has not seen another living soul in over four years. That is until he spots Em, (Neethling) a young woman who has been following Heinrich for a while now. Mute and extremely distrustful, Em initially keeps her distance but eventually, those barriers come down, and Em and Heinrich begin to grow closer and closer in their newfound companionship.

This opening twenty minutes or so are certainly when and where the film is at its strongest, when the relationship between Em and Heinrich is allowed space to blossom and shine, resulting in a deep, touching story of human connection brought to life by two great acting turns from Wessels and Neethling, the latter in particular turning in the standout performance, fully capturing the veritable fear, distrust and desperation of Em’s situation.

And the reason for this wariness becomes clear soon enough. Em, it turns out has magical abilities and is being pursued by Sam (Jaftha), the leader of a group of unstable bandits looking to recapture her and use her powers for their own means. From there the film changes shape, the soft emotion built up in the beginning is now ripped away and replaced with a looming sense of peril and drama, adding a new exciting dynamic to carry us right on through the rest of the film.

Unfortunately, after enjoying the brilliant chemistry between Wessels and Neethling in the opening third, our newly introduced group of slightly exaggerated one-note characters (with the exception of Jaftha who does excel in moments, especially in the film's surprisingly emotional finale) don’t seem to meet the same marks with their otherwise fine performances. The film also lacks slightly in terms of its believability in its premise, the lush forest surroundings and pretty clean-cut characters not exactly selling the idea of a post-nuclear war annihilated landscape.

But the film's writing and pacing are strong and steady enough to see everything through smoothly, not to mention managing to look great the whole time as well. While there are hints as to the particulars of the war and its goings on, Cronje, van Heerden and co. are quite right to not get too bogged down in needless backstory and exposition, instead choosing to focus not on what has happened before, but what is happening now, knowing the details as to why the world is in the mess it’s in is far less important than telling human stories still living on.

An ambitious film that manages to blend elements of survival, mystery, tension, drama and even love, The Forest is a thoroughly enjoyable film that presents itself very well across the board.