The White Goddess

In her feature film debut, The White Goddess, writer/co-director Eugina Gelbelman explores that nebulous line between good and evil. Rebecca (Morgan Everitt) is a writer living in an isolated wintery cabin in the middle of nowhere. Her reading of Robert Grave’s The Greek Myth is interrupted when she rescues a young man, Andrew (Jonathan Peck), from an accident nearby. The innovative Rebecca researches physical trauma and hypothermia treatments from the internet and nurses Andrew back to health. Now we have a story.

When Andrew awakens, he’s immediately shocked about how he got into Rebecca’s home and slightly suspicious of her. His phone is missing, and he cannot communicate with the outside world. He also has a large gash on the back of his head that Rebecca closed up. Meanwhile, she has isolated herself for several reasons. Coping with depression was one reason while welcoming and tending to the wounds of strangers was not on the list. Rebecca had a dream which depicted Andrew strangling her to death. But was it only a dream, or was it a foreboding premonition?

“Make your movie.” We say it repeatedly at Film Threat. Gelbelman and co-director Sean Coulton take the reigns of this micro-budget thriller and explore the interaction between two strangers struggling to keep their dark side at arm’s length. The White Goddess focuses primarily on Rebecca, who’s a student of mythology.

“…Rebecca researches physical trauma and hypothermia treatments from the internet and nurses Andrew back to health.”

The idea of myth and mythology is incorporated into Rebecca’s backstory while playing a role in her mindset as the mystery unravels. It gives her a unique viewpoint and extra dimension, which you often don’t see in a debut feature. Is Rebecca a good person for saving the life of a stranger? Is she bad for the dreams she’s having about Andrew? Or is it something vastly different?

The barebones crew does an incredible job keeping us off balance throughout The White Goddess, as we feel the story floating somewhere between dream and reality. They make effective use of not only (my guess) the Airbnb they rented but of the snowy terrain surrounding them. The filmmakers took full command of the incredibly limited resources available, focused on two characters, and play the narrative almost like a stage drama.

Storywise, Gelbelman’s script also keeps us off-balance by having our sympathies and alliances constantly shifting between Rebecca and Andrew. It’s like peeling an onion. The story starts slowly tearing off one layer at a time for each character and soon gets into a groove to reveal (or not reveal) what’s at the center. Both leads, Everitt and Peck, capture the right tone to pull off this mystery.

Let’s face it, all micro-budget movies could be better with giant stacks of cash in the old hip pocket. However, I got the sense that there was always a more powerful story wanting to be told. With The White Goddess, Gelbelman and Coulton had a game plan and executed it brilliantly, putting together a fantastic film.

For more information, visit The White Goddess official website.