Reflective Encounters

“As soon as Roosa arrives on the set of the period drama in order to have her film breakthrough, every man she meets seems keen on deceiving her. On the set of The Pastor (the film within the film), the men are more in service to the beautiful Danish superstar that has replaced Roosa as the female lead. The film industry’s gender bias shines through, and once confronted with its aftermath – the enraged actress whom apparently no one cared to warn  – the guys can only mumble nonsensical explanations and throw dust in her eyes.

It might be the case that The Pastor’s Wife reads as a self-flagellation or an ironic take on male directorial dictatorship, but the fact that this is actor Arttu Kapulainen’s directorial debut suggests that he’s largely interested in exploring the elastic dynamics between performer and filmmaker. However, the roles of women are being questioned, maybe even provocatively mocked: Roosa’s acceptance to appear as a corpse at the very last scene is as confounding as her elimination from the cast in the first place. Film shoots often follow their own inner logic but only rarely this structure circles back around to the protagonist’s wife instead of predominantly him.”

— Savina Petkova