Riverwoods
I never like to be unkind about the creative efforts of
others – bitter reviews and correspondence of my own stuff has made me
sensitive to such things, but I found Riverwoods, a film from
climate change activists Scotland The Big Picture at best head scratching.
The premise? Well, let me use their words because I became a little
confused,
Riverwoods is the story of a fish that lives in the forest.
And in the soil that feeds the forest. And in the predators, scavengers and
even herbivores of the forest. Scotland’s Atlantic salmon - the King of
Fish - is not only the ultimate angler’s prize, but a key building block in
a complex forest ecosystem.
If I understand the filmmakers reasoning the argument goes
that Scotland needs to rewild the landscape replacing heather with forest
which, in turn, will aid the recovery of the Atlantic salmon. I guess it
might, but will it? The Scottish landscape was largely denuded of trees in
the Bronze Age, the wood used for, as the name of the era suggests, bronze
smelting. But the precipitous decline in salmon runs dates back decades, or
maybe a century or two at best, rather than to the Bronze Age three
millennia or more ago.
In parts this is an interesting film; it has important
things to say which it says well. But I could well have done without a
preachy adolescent, as sort of Caledonian Greta Thunberg, who told me what
I should be thinking both at the beginning and end of the film, which
nicely bookended my rage when there was a five-minute love-in to the
beaver.
You can watch the trailer here and register to watch the film for
free.
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