GREENER PASTURES Tradition and Modernity in Grace McKenzie’s In the Land of Wolves
Life isn’t easy for the residents of Argokhi, Georgia. Their small rural village huddles in the foothills of the imposing Caucasus mountain range, where the natural beauty of the terrain is mostly untouched by modern intervention. This is a place that seems to resist the pull of technology and the other trappings of contemporary life. Most villagers live hand-to-mouth, working the land to produce food for themselves and their neighbours. Animals are either slaughtered for meals or sold on for profit. The land itself is diligently tended using agricultural practices that date back to the Middle Ages; as one resident explains, ‘We all grow our own wheat and mill it into flour. You can’t make a living out of working in the village. We work just to live.’
In the Land of Wolves (2018), writer/director Grace McKenzie’s sophomore documentary feature, presents a fascinating snapshot of a community that appears to stand outside of time. Yet, as the film shows us, there is a universality to the human condition that time and place cannot alter. Building on the intimate filmmaking of McKenzie’s award-winning debut, Audrey of the Alps (2012), In the Land of Wolves also exudes a gentle poignancy that takes its cues from the unhurried rhythms of slow cinema. A broad definition of that mode of filmmaking will usually note features like ‘the employment of (often extremely) long takes, Certainly, the film’s effect on the viewer is gently hypnotic as it homes in on details: a donkey’s hoofs punching out little grooves in the snow, a hand caressing a newborn calf, fingers kneading dough. Produced by McKenzie’s father, Brian, with assistance from Screen Australia, this is a lucid, assured cinematic work from a talented young Australian director.
