You will see three words appear in most advance press of Goran Stolevski’s debut film, You Won’t Be Alone: “Malick” and “The Witch.” And that really is the best way to classify the Australian director’s movie – it’s like Robert Eggers’ The Witch if directed by Terrence Malick. Homage and pastiche aside, Stolevski, who is of Macedonian descent, has created a truly beautiful picture, one that somehow mingles horror and silent beauty while questioning what it means to be human.
Like Malick, Stolevski allows nature to become a major character in his film. We see numerous shots of trees and farm animals and the sky. Wind rustling through the wheat. And much of the dialogue is fueled by poetic inner monologue. Yet, Stolevski probes the human condition via a character who is cursed from an infant to be an outcast. Our protagonist is, in fact, a witch, wandering the 19th century Macedonian countryside trying to make meaning out of her life.
After her mother keeps her in a cave during her formative years to avoid a curse, Nevena (Sara Klimoska) is tricked into entering the world by the very witch who claimed her as an infant. Much like Truffaut’s Wild Child, Nevena understands nothing of human civilization and follows after the witch, the hideously burned Old Maid Maria (Anamaria Marinca). These witches have the power to shapeshift into any animal or human. All they have to do is kill someone or something, tear a hole into their own chests and stuff in their victims’ entrails.
While Maria hates mankind, Nevena aches to know more about humans, and via a series of shapeshifts, she learns about the place of women and girls in Macedonian society. Maria disowns Nevena eventually, leaving the girl to navigate her way in society by taking on the role of woman and man alike. Nevena experiences both the horror of being a wife and the kindred feelings that exist between women. She also learns about the pleasure of sex from both perspectives as well as the toxic expectations that exist for men. Best of all, Nevena gets to experience the childhood she never had when she takes the form of a child who has died in an accident.
In each incarnation, Nevena is mute. We hear her stunted thoughts in voiceover, watching as an awareness of the world slowly enters each new skin she inhabits. Meanwhile, Maria watches, determined to thwart Nevena’s happiness. Stolevski doesn’t supply us with a lot of context at first, leaving the audience to discover along with Nevena via broken snippets of dialogue and beautiful shots of nature in its full radiance. But this isn’t Malick-lite. Stolevski isn’t trying to recreate heaven in his vision of Macedonia. There is a focus on the mundane, on the sweat and pull of naked bodies that would feel out of place in Malick’s more ethereal visions of things.
Nevena silently experiences the many aspects of life – from falling in love to the loss of a loved one. But happiness is elusive and Maria eventually returns to remind Nevena of her true nature, brutally ending one of the girl’s more contented incarnations. For those who eschew horror movies, You Won’t Be Alone may be gory but it isn’t really scary.
You Won’t Be Alone is a dizzying ride that doesn’t always follow a linear narrative. Stolevski trusts his audience to enter this world and feel around, just as Nevena attempts to understand. This is a film about empathy. We feel for Nevena and her various incarnations. We also feel for Old Maid Maria as her story, a burden the crone has carried for more than 200 years, is the most tragic of all. And yet, nothing lasts forever. Nevena discovers life is a circular tale, not one of a single, thin line.
Photo courtesy of Focus Features
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