In his book Landscape and Memory, Simon Schama indicates the affinity between a given physical setting and the memory and myths concealed within it. He devotes an entire chapter to the Bialowieza Forest, tracing the elements of life and culture concealed in it. Evron’s film, originally shot on Super 16, is an attempt to confront the multiplicity of highly-charged historical layers existing in situ, and mainly with the absence of signs surrendering those occurrences. The topography and flora conceal and erase the memory of the past being buried underneath them, transforming the forest into a place of amnesia and pure nature. At the same time, considerable differences are discernible in the film between the greener Russian forest and the Polish forest, attesting to the discussion of nature-culture relationship.

Evron leads the viewer on a journey in both parts of the forest, while attempting to trace the history and myths of the place. His position, however, is not neutral-documentary. By introducing a processed soundtrack he constructs a new forest, as it were, at once horror-ridden and sensuous. The sound in the film was added after the shooting phase, and consists of various sources which Evron edited and combined, such as a touristy tape of the forest sounds sold at the national park, sounds from the forest which Evron himself recorded, the sound of footsteps, etc. The transitions between silence and the birds’ calls, the footsteps of an invisible figure, and other rustles, render the pastoral atmosphere of the forest threatening, lending it a new, scary and mysterious character.

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