“Reedland” from Norway and Director Sven Bresser. (Photo by Sam du Pons).
“Reedland,” written and directed by Sven Bresser, is a Norwegian/Dutch film screening at the 61st Chicago International Film Festival. It is in competition for the Gold Hugo award in Chicago and was nominated for 7 other awards at other film festivals. It will be submitted for potential inclusion in the 2026 Oscar foreign film category. That category will be further whittled down to the 15 that get the most votes from countries submitting. I noted others on the list, including “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” and “2000 Meters to Andriivka”. ( The two riveting films just mentioned are in the documentary category, however, which would take them out of head-to-head competition with “Reedland.”)
PLOT
I’m Norwegian (Grandfather) and Dutch (Grandmother, Mom’s side), so I was rooting for “Reedland,” which had a very promising log-line: “When reed cutter Johan discovers the lifeless body of a girl on his land, he is overcome by an ambiguous sense of guilt. While taking care of his granddaughter, he sets out on a quest to track down evil.” With the promise of an intriguing “who-done-it” in mind, I was eager to view this 111 minute film. The cinematography of the beautiful countryside by Sam du Pon is gorgeous. One (of 7) awards that the film has been nominated for, so far, had to do with editing the shots of the Dutch ceountryside. Lead character Johan Braad (Gerrit Knobbe) did a good job in his part, although he is taciturn throughout.
There is a fierce rivalry between the “filthy Trooters” who farm across the water from Johan’s farm. A “filthy Trooter” is initially suspected of Elise’s murder, but that accusation is unfounded. It seemed consistent with the tendency of one group to blame a member of an adversarial group for any wrongdoing. [Jimmy Kimmel’s recent absence from the television air waves for 3 days could be blamed on a similar offense.]
We know that Johan suspects Morris. The police don’t seem to agree. Johan, our intrepid and slow-moving Dutch farmer, is so suspicious that, in one interview, the local police actually tell him, “Leave the Petter family alone and let us do our job.” After the washing machine incident (described below), I began to lose faith in Johan as a crack investigator.
FARM ISSUES
In one scene Johan did show emotion, pitching his farm’s reeds as being superior for use on roofs, because they would last for up to 40 years versus the reeds from a neighboring village across the water that only lasted 14 years. (Do Norwegians still use reeds for roofing? ) He also complains to a buyer about the fall of Chinese container prices.
IJsselmeer Area
The area of Holland where the murder took place is referenced as The Ijsselmeer area on television.The IJsselmeer (Dutch: [ˌɛisəlˈmeːr] ⓘ; West Frisian: Iselmar, Dutch Low Saxon: Iesselmeer), also known as Lake IJssel in English, is a closed-off freshwater lake in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland. It covers an area of 1,100 km2 (420 sq mi) with an average depth of 4.5 m (15 ft). The river IJssel, after which the lake was named, flows into the IJsselmeer.
WASHING MACHINE
Gerrit Knobbe in “Reedland.” (Photo credit Sam du Pons).
The plot develops slowly. Very, very slowly. So slowly that I actually checked the second hand of my watch to see how long it took for a sequence involving Johan’s washing machine to set up.
A large rock, apparently from the reed field where the girl’s body was found, was placed inside Johan’s washing machine. The machine spins wildly out of control. Johan’s reaction to the malfunctioning machine is characteristically slow, despite the machine’s manic and noisy demise.
Then Johan methodically places the rock in a white plastic bag. He carries the bag with the rock in it to the river, at least two football fields away. Johan chucks the rock into the water. [That sequence took at least 5 minutes.] Johan returns to the house. Then, belatedly, he returns to the water, dives in, and recovers the submerged rock (Add more minutes. The task of retrieving the rock looked impossible, since the water is very murky. Johan didn’t seem to immediately realize that the rock might be payback from someone out to punish him. It made one wonder about his acumen as an investigator.)
MORE THREATENING ACTS
The exact importance to the plot of finding, jettisoning and recovering the rock is never really explained. We suspect that Johan is experiencing revenge from the son of a neighbor, Morris Petter, because Johan gave the local police a tip about a dirt bike path leading into the reeds to the dead body of local girl Elise Veenstra. Johan later tells the police that Morris Petters, the son of his next-door neighbor, drives a dirt bike. Morris might not have appreciated the added police scrutiny.
We see Morris tailgating Johan’s car with a large John Deere tractor in a threatening manner while Johan is driving with his small granddaughter Dana (Lois Reinders). Someone injures Johan’s horse, Grise. (“Reedland” includes footage of the white mare being bred to a black stallion. A cow is put down, off-screen. Neither event seems to have much to do with the plot, nor do the threatening actions mentioned, by film’s end.)
Finally, there is a physical confrontation between Johan and Morris. After the wrestling match with Morris, you still won’t definitely know who killed Elise Veenst.
THE GOOD
“Reedland.” (Photo by Sam du Pons.)
The scenes of the reeds and the surrounding waterways are beautiful. Life on a farm in Holland was scenic, but, to me, it seemed primitive. I felt as though I was looking at a painting by VerMeer or VanGogh: a man raking sheaves into piles by hand and setting them on fire. I grew up in farm country, but the idea of not automating to tractors in modern times was foreign to a woman whose husband worked for John Deere for 40 years.
In terms of being a riveting story, the plot reminded me of Willa Cather’s novels. Cather would go on for page after page, musing about fields of wheat (in Nebraska). In this Holland-set film, there’s a scene of two elderly men farting at the kitchen table. This prompts the female lead (Susan Beijer), Johan’s daughter, to say, “Good grief, you bunch of sheep.”
I can only guess that this humorous scene was meant to be a tonal shift from the overall sense of slow-moving life in rural Holland. Lightening the mood in a hard-driving murder investigation is justified, if that murder investigation is the main thrust of our story. Not sure that investigating the murder was really the director’s main goal. The film seemed to be more an examination of the elderly Johan’s life in rural Holland.
Johan is primarily shown caring for his charming granddaughter, occasionally interacting with his daughter, and going about the duties of everyday life in the fields near his farm. The murder of a local girl is a very big departure in Johan’s normal life, so it is understandable that the elderly grandfather begins thinking long and hard about the unfortunate demise of Elise Veenst and developing theories about her assailant. (The local police do not seem particularly consumed with finding the murderer ASAP—probably very typical in a small town or rural area—, but, then, the focus here is on Johan and his fixation on the crime. Although Johan is pondering the clues, he takes his own sweet time in trying to get to the bottom of the mystery.)
The cinematography (Sam du Pon) and editing were excellent, but the film moves at the speed of a glacier. It has scenes inserted that did not immediately propel the plot forward, including discussions of farm issues in Holland, animal sequences, a sequence involving porn on the computer (presumably to spice up Johan’s boring life), the farting scene mentioned above, and Johan’s involvement with his granddaughter Dana’s play and life.
FARM ECONOMY
We hear the local farmers complain about how Chinese container prices have fallen. One man suggests to Johan that he automate. Johan is resistant to change. He rejects the notion of using big farm equipment, insisting that the machines will “ruin the land.” So, we have, instead, lovely photos of reeds being bundled and burned by hand by Johan, working alone on his land. Old-fashioned is probably an understatement. Quaint might fit.
There is symbolism in “Reedland.”
- “Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. He who goes out weeping, bearing a trail of seed, will surely return with shouts of joy, carrying sheaves of grain”. Psalm 126:5-6: This foundational verse describes a process of spiritual growth.
I’m still working out the importance of the children’s play that Dana, Johan’s granddaughter, is involved with. I look forward to more clarification of hidden meanings. Maybe the meanings weren’t so hidden and I just lost the plot path because “Reedland” moved so slowly.
CONCLUSION
The director, Sven Bresser, is coming in person to the showing of “Reedland” at the 61st Chicago International Film Festival for two showings: Thursday, October 16th at 7:30 p.m. at the AMC Newcity 14 (Theater #5) and to the Gene Siskel Film Center at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, October 17th. His Q&A may clear up some plot threads and explain or justify the significance of scenes inserted that weren’t material to the question of who killed Elise Veenst. The focus is not on the murdered girl, but on the elderly and seemingly lonely farmer.
NO DATELINE DENOUEMENT
After all, the pace of this feature film does not need to duplicate television crime shows like “Dateline” or “20/20,” but as a patron of exposure to many such U.S. television shows, I found “Reedland” needed to potentially step up the pace, plot-wise. It starts off with a riveting bit of information, but slowly devolves into tedium.
THE MESSAGE?
This may be the very message intended for us to take with us about Johan’s rural life; he seems a creature of habit who is existing rather than living life to the fullest. He doesn’t seem miserable, but he doesn’t seem that content, either (despite his loving daughter and granddaughter). I was disappointed that such a gorgeously photographed area didn’t produce an equally engrossing story. I wanted this lovely film to be riveting and difficult to stop watching with great interest. (After all, these are my people, from Delft and Bergen).
For me, gorgeous cinematography notwithstanding, the plot needed more active investigating and more closure. It’s not a bad thing in a plot to leave questions unanswered, but it is simply confusing when everything is left up to the audience. Perhaps, although Dutch and Norwegian on my mother’s side, I’m too American.
I wanted an answer to the question, “Who done it?” that was more reliable than Johan’s conjecture. I still don’t know who killed Elise Veenst, unless I completely accept Johan’s sleuthing acumen, and I’m still shaking my head over the washing machine and the rock.
