Shot in lush and misty black & white, with superbly framed large-canvas photography, and truly exceptional production design, Malu Janssen’s Barlebas is a 20-minute short of a literal witch-hunt. One which perfectly balances the epic and the intimate, the tender and the defiant, in its storytelling.
Somewhere in the 16th century, in a small Belgian village, the women go about the work of domestic chores, and animal husbandry. It is shot with a very particular form of tactile, almost ASMR, immersion. The milking of the cows (and the lick of a finger before drinking), the sharp tools used to separate and spin wool, you can feel the textures and the rhythm of the day.
A woman, Heylken, looks accusingly at the camera. Her face is superimposed on the village with its column of smoke, and ash particles blowing through the air. There are whispers, and sour glances from the men, as the women work. A girl, envious of Heylken’s upcoming trip to town, a rarity to escape the village, asks if she has ever danced with the devil. A cock bites a hand, and an ox dies. It is not long before a trio of women are being bound up and tested, by drowning, for witchcraft.
The strength of this short is not its style or period veracity, which it has aplenty, but rather the musical defiance of the women (“my chant resonates!”) as they approach their fate. Janssen then contrasts their no-win resolution with the small girl’s elegy in the city church. She ends up running the errand, but without the joy of discovery or wonder due to the loss of her community.
Built of mud, animal fur, rushing water, still mists, drifting smoke, and an observation of faces, Barelbas is a masterclass on submersion into the power of the moving image -- to tell us what we should already know, but still need be reminded.
Barlebas played in the Born of Women shorts block at Fantasia. It has been winning awards all over Europe, deservedly so. It also won Fantasia’s prize for ‘best international short’. If you have a chance to catch this on a big screen, with a quality sound system, you would be well advised to do so.