Fantastic Fest Review: Witte Wieven

Mist and mystery are often at the heart of great folk horror. That twist of ambiguity, the thing glimpsed at the corner of the eye or between the trees, is part of the witchy power of enigmatic Dutch period chiller Witte Wieven,

Receiving its international premiere at this year's Fantastic Fest, Witte Wieven may have been saddled with the generic English language title Heresy, but the original title carries so much more magic to it. The words translate directly to "white women" but in Dutch Low Saxon the term has two meanings: wise women who dabble in old knowledge that is shunned yet often useful to the community, but also the elven spirits that dwell in the deepest, darkest places. Their pallor can reflect much, both beautiful and corrupt: pale skin and soft gowns, bleached bones picked free of meat, or even the bulbous wriggling of maggots.

Debuting feature director Didier Konings plays with both definitions. Frieda (Anneke Sluiters) is quick becoming an outcast in her village, a rain-lashed and muddy collection of wooden and thatched cottages under a rough-hewn cross. Her failure to bear her husband, Hikko (Len Leo Vincent) a child is beginning to be noticed, and so she starts to rely on folklore solutions, the very kind that wise women might provide. Yet a fateful walk into the woods by night attracts the other kind of Witte Wieven, and this is where the film transforms from the mire the Middle Ages into something far more darkly enchanting.

The strength of that opening sequence is as a depiction of small-town village life in devout, fear-struck medieval Holland. The underlying narrative of the role of women in this community – victim until they are sinner – is ruthlessly timeless. Yet Konings captures more mundane and historically specific details, like the value of meat in an agrarian society. Sluiters is mercifully never given the flavorless and generic transformation into the vengeful superpowered supernatural woman that too much contemporary folk horror relies upon. As a result, she can concentrate on the complexities of her character as Frieda finds herself the subject of strange and eerie fascinations.

Unlike this year's other folk horror selection at Fantastic Fest, the British The Severed Sun, the Dutch Witte Wieven uses imagery more than words to explore its arcane mythology. That plays to the strengths of the two directors. The Severed Sun creator Dean Puckett loves the enigmatic mysteries of daylight, where the otherworldly should not be able to hide in plain sight. Konings has spent over a decade making music videos and as a visual and concept artist on Hollywood blockbusters from Tomb Raider to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and that's reflected in his work here as a visually-driven storyteller.

When the otherworldly does finally show itself, it’s initially in hidden details. Often in low-budget films that’s the sensible way to obscure budget restrictions, but Konings ultimately conjures his Witte Wieven in full, glorious, frightening view. When the other world bursts into ours, it’s a rainbow of night, of grotesque and seductive imagery, terror and wonder.

Witte Wieven was originally commissioned by Dutch filmmaker Martin Koolhoven (Winter in Wartime) for his Koolhoven Presenteert TV anthology show. The six-episode series was intended to showcase the best of the new generation of Dutch filmmakers and to give them an opportunity to showcase their work both at home and internationally. With both the tense, dark, historical drama of the opening act and the wild, magical fury of the closing half, it's definitely marked Konings as one of the most exciting directors working in the folk horror space today.

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Witte Wieven

Netherlands, 2024, 61 min.
International Premiere

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