The Forest in Me (Rebecca E. Marshall) UK |

The Forest in Me
Rebecca E. Marshall
UK. 2024. 69 min

Epic forests of the Siberian Taiga and black lava landscapes of a Hawaiian volcano are woven through this quietly powerful film that opens out from a personal story about living with uncertainty, to reflect upon possibilities of love and human connection.
In an intimate letter to her young child, the filmmaker builds connections between Agafya Lykova, an elderly woman surviving alone in the Siberian forest since her birth, who scares bears away by banging on space-rocket debris, a crew in Hawaii simulating what isolated life could be on Mars and her young child discovering the world minute by minute. This endlessly surprising journey offers up images that shake ideas of past, present and future to form a deeply tender vision of humanity and timeless survival on planet Earth.

REBECCA E. MARSHALL

Rebecca E. Marshall is an acclaimed filmmaker whose work blends poetic imagery with compelling narratives, often drawing on personal and universal themes of memory, time, and human connection. She holds a PhD in film by practice, exploring the potential for film to generate sensory, haptic experiences. Her films have screened internationally, earning accolades for their emotional depth and visual artistry. With a background in fine art and documentary filmmaking, she seamlessly fuses experimental techniques with traditional storytelling. Her recent feature The Forest in Me premiered in 2024 in Thessaloniki’s Fast Forward competition. She ran Hastings’ independent Electric Palace Cinema in the UK for twenty years making a vibrant space for film lovers and filmmakers.

Her moving image and documentary films have screened at festivals including Thessaloniki Doc fest, Locarno, Creteil International Women’s f/f, Kerala f/f, Berlin Short f/f, London Independent Documentary F/F, Kasseler Dok Fest, Les Enfants Terribles! f/f and at venues including The Royal Danish Academy, the NFT, The Roundhouse, The Arnolfini, Musee Du Louvre, The South London Gallery, Glasgow Tramway, De La Warr Pavilion, and The BlackShed Gallery.