BEFF Ignites
Pre-Festival Benefit for Ukraine
Join us on Thursday, September 15th at 6 PM for a Garden Soiree at the Tusten Heritage Community Garden. Then into the Tusten Theatre at 7 PM for a screening of Woman at War— an artful Icelandic-Ukrainian film-fable about one woman’s dual life as a choir leader and radical environmental activist.
Following the screening, BEFF will host a talkback with beloved maker Tannis Kowalchuk of Farm Arts Collective, local Ukrainian community members, environmentalist Ramsey Adams, and other members of Catskill Mountain Keeper.
Proceeds of the screening will go directly to Ukrainian Relief via World Vision’s Ukrainian Crisis Fund.
Featuring pre-screening live music by Grammy-Award-winning musician Kevin Hays!
CATSKILLS PREMIERE
Woman at War
Halla is a fifty-year-old independent woman. But behind the scenes of a quiet routine, she leads a double life as a passionate environmental activist. Known to others only by her alias “The Woman of the Mountain,” Halla secretly wages a one-woman-war on the local aluminum industry. As Halla’s actions grow bolder, from petty vandalism to outright industrial sabotage, she succeeds in pausing the negotiations between the Icelandic government and the corporation building a new aluminum smelter. But right as she begins planning her biggest and boldest operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that changes everything. Her application to adopt a child has finally been accepted and there is a little girl waiting for her in Ukraine. As Halla prepares to abandon her role as saboteur and savior of the Highlands to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother, she decides to plot one final attack to deal the aluminum industry a crippling blow.
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY
Benedikt Erlingsson was born on May 31, 1969 in Reykjavik, Iceland. He is an actor and director, known for Woman at War (2018), Of Horses and Men (2013) and The Show of Shows (2015).
FEATURE | 101 min | IS | 2019
DIRECTOR
Benedikt Erlingsson
PRODUCERS
Serge Lavrenyuk, Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson, Birgitta Björnsdóttir
WRITER
Benedikt Erlingsson & Ólafur Egill Egilsson
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Marianne Slot, Benedikt Erlingsson, Carine Leblanc
CAST
Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir
Jóhann Sigurðarson
ART DIRECTION
Lucia Malyshko
Anna Maria Tomasdottir
EDITOR
Davíð Alexander Corno
COMPOSER
Davíð Þór Jónsson
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson
CONSULTING EDITORS
Lewis Erskine, Carol Dysinger, Edwin Martinez
SCREENING SPONSOR
