In an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, a young girl is kidnapped and then transformed into a witch by an ancient spirit.
“You Won’t Be Alone” is an astonishing folk horror cloaked in an emotional shawl. Occurring in the 1800s, the film’s Balkan setting featuring mutating bloodsuckers recalls the 1971 Yugoslavian vampire film “Leptirica.” With a raw-cinematic eye, the cinematography recalls Terrence Malick’s visual approach. This Macedonian tale morphs the witch and vampiric myth much like its shape-shifting characters.
Covered in third-degree scars from centuries prior, the ancient witch or “Wolf-Eateress” Old Maid Maria (Anamaria Marinca) makes a blood pact with a desperate mother to spare her newborn Nevena until she is a teenager. On Nevena’s 16th birthday, she will be condemned to serve Maria, a real horror legend that parents warn their children about. Before leaving, Maria slices Nevena’s vocal cord leaving the protagonist voiceless on screen, but she continues to narrate in a struggling distorted voice. While absconded in a sacred cave adorned with a cross, Nevena (Sara Klimoska) stares up through the ceiling’s two holes that look like living inside a hollowed-out skull. Raised mostly alone, Nevena is unfamiliar with her surroundings and enters the world she had been sheltered from.
Maria is full of animosity and some magnificent powers, the latter of which passes onto her feral apprentice Nevena. This power given makes one capable of taking on any human’s skin. Eventually, the teen begins calling Maria “Witch-Mama.” Everything changes when Nevena takes on the skin of peasant farmer Bosilka (Noomi Rapace), and she continues to walk in others’ shoes.
For a debut, Goran Stolevski is completely in control of his vision, crafting a near-masterpiece. While there is no shortage of violence, it is not too graphic. Its horrors are balanced out with reprieves of nature and other harmonious moments. Marinca, Rapace, and Klimoska sink into their roles and showcase vivid performances. Shot on digital, Stolevski and DP Matthew Chuang capture the Autumnal Balkan Mountains cutting through the Macedonian landscape with immersive tracking shots. Utilizing a 4:3 Aspect Ratio gives the film a classic aesthetic with low-hanging impressionist angles askew on the hillsides. The powerful screenplay touches on womanhood and the timeless universality of a proletariat’s struggle through themes: identity, rebirth, abuse, subservience, and liberation. The experience is akin to an anthropological lesson, witnessing a protagonist survive in a structured society where everything seems predetermined in cruelty. Relevant as the 19th century still is, it is also a reminder that We Will Not Be alone.
In Theaters Friday, April 1st
