So...what the heck was the wall?

I agree completely. The woman encounters this invisible wall which cuts her off completely from the rest of the world, leaving her to spend the rest of her life (we assume...we are never told for sure) with a cow and a dog, and she puts less effort into trying to escape than I do into trying to get into last years' jeans. Absurd. Naturally, the movie is considered an "art house masterpiece", aka "crap story that makes no sense."
I give it a 2; the scenery was fantastic, and I liked the dog. I was thoroughly ticked off that the wall was never explained and that we do not know what happened after she finished her notes.
15 minutes worth of movie dragged on for 1 hour and 48 minutes.

*yawn*

I will not be beaten; you have yet to see me shining!

Honestly I think it is up to the viewer to decide what the wall is. To me the wall was in her mind. She was shutting the world out and wanted nothing to come in. The Wall was that barrier. She was depressed over a traumatic incident and she was shutting the world out. I believe the wall was in her head, in her writings to protect herself for anymore horror. Notice her hair in the scene with the man and then in the cabin. I liked this film a lot. It made you think

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2604794/

Read more books (dare I say it: literature). You'll learn about the various methods authors use for exposition, such as missives from a first person narrator, as well as the tendency to end a story on an ambiguous note.

Indeed

Another note is that the novel was written and takes place sometime in the mid sixties, during the cold war. In the book, the character explains the wall to herself as probably being some new weapon, launched by some military superpower - this she finds to be the only plausible explanation.


She does consider escaping by digging her way under the wall, seeing that the river has been able to do so, but as everyone on the outside seems to be dead, she considers this a possible suicide. The thought of digging her way out does reoccur during the book though, and at one point she says that she will probably do so one day, as a last desperate attempt.

The whole cold war-backdrop seems to be lost in the film - it also explains the amount of suplies in the cabin.. Actually it seems to be left altogether - the music (in the car), the cars and the clothes all make it seem more like our time. I think this is a weakness of the film.

That said, I do believe (as most others here) that the wall itself is not really that important. I neither tend to think of it in metaphorical terms - it's just simply there, as a premise to set up the story. What matters is what happens within these premises, not how they came to be.

Of course this can a little much to swallow for some, and also amongst those I know who've read the book there is a division between those who accepts these premises, and those who find them implausible (and with that also the protagonists actions, and thoughts). Which is fair.

Having only seen the film and not read the book, I didn't find the wall itself to have much actual meaning. I think the story could be generalized from two distinct scenes and the mood surrounding each.

1. When she shoots a deer and we watch the life leave it's body and then it rolls down a hill.

2. When she shoots the man. She says she dragged his body up a cliff and rolled it down.

In the former, she shot to survive, but felt guilt. Her first thoughts were, "I don't want to do this, it doesn't feel right". In the latter, there's a real opportunity to interact with another human, alive, inside her wall. Maybe to ask questions like; "Why are you here? How did you get here?" etc... Instead she acts on anger, protection, and in a defensive almost-reflex runs for a gun to kill.

So she went from "just getting by", "I'm doing this because I have no other option" to "I'm protecting this, this is mine, this is my survival".

She spoke early in the movie about how she could never relate to someone who enjoyed killing, but after she killed the man with the axe there was a tone of gratification in her voice about it, aside from the loss of Bull and Lynx.

These two scenes don't explain the movie, but they put it in a really easy context when looking at the rest of the film. For example, "As a human you are the only thing capable of, and responsible for, deciding right from wrong in the wild."

Having only seen the film and not read the book, I didn't find the wall itself to have much actual meaning. I think the story could be generalized from two distinct scenes and the mood surrounding each.

1. When she shoots a deer and we watch the life leave it's body and then it rolls down a hill.

2. When she shoots the man. She says she dragged his body up a cliff and rolled it down.

In the former, she shot to survive, but felt guilt. Her first thoughts were, "I don't want to do this, it doesn't feel right". In the latter, there's a real opportunity to interact with another human, alive, inside her wall. Maybe to ask questions like; "Why are you here? How did you get here?" etc... Instead she acts on anger, protection, and in a defensive almost-reflex runs for a gun to kill.

So she went from "just getting by", "I'm doing this because I have no other option" to "I'm protecting this, this is mine, this is my survival".

She spoke early in the movie about how she could never relate to someone who enjoyed killing, but after she killed the man with the axe there was a tone of gratification in her voice about it, aside from the loss of Bull and Lynx.

These two scenes don't explain the movie, but they put it in a really easy context when looking at the rest of the film. For example, "As a human you are the only thing capable of, and responsible for, deciding right from wrong in the wild."

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