Not so long ago, Martin was a gifted mathematician with a career and a steady girlfriend. But after a spell in psychiatric care, he is released with no job and no way of supporting himself, labelled as mentally ill. Viktor is a young Ukrainian boy recently orphaned following his mother's OD. When the two meet, Martin takes Victor under his wing, and fleeing the city, they escape to a forest where they manage to build a hut robust enough to live in. Though not easy, their back-to-nature subsistence life is idyllic by comparison to what they have left behind, and the pair become firm friends. Martin even meets a sympathetic young woman, Lena, who he encourages to live in a more idealistic way. But just as Martin has started to find happiness, harsh reality intervenes? Director Hans Weingartner is best known here for his second film, The Edukators, but his new film is closer to his debut feature, The White Noise (LFF 2000). In common with that film, Hut in the Woods takes a progressive view of mental illness, creating believable and likeable characters and telling their story with empathy and an enviable lightness of touch.
Sandra Hebron
London Film Festival
