Review of “Matsalu Moose: Wild Giants of the Baltics” (2019)
Seen in 2019.
Seen in its Swedish-language adaptation on SVT.
Matsalu National Park at the Baltic Sea coast in Estonia.
Naïve nature film. The opening narration explains that Matsalu is a nature reserve where all hunting is prohibited etc., but midway through the film, farmers are shown clearing large meadows with tractors in Matsalu. The same narrator explains that the government pays them to keep the landscape open. Humans are not otherwise shown. So the place is a cultural landscape for human visual pleasure, not a nature reserve. It’s great that the script included this contradiction, but weird that it’s not discussed as a contradiction.