NORD (NORTH)

Norway, 2009, 78 minutes, Colour.
Anders Baasmo Christianson.
Directed by Rune Denstad Langlo.

Nord is a very brief film from Norway. It focuses on a thirty-year-old guard at a ski resort who is in depression and is undergoing therapy. He discovers that he might have a son with his former girlfriend, living nine hundred kilometres to the north. After burning down the lodge, he decides to go on a trek riding a skimobile to meet his unseen son. On the way, he encounters a number of people, especially a young girl living with her grandmother, an isolated young man, and an elderly man who lives in a tent on the ice and has opted out of life.

The film is comic in incidents. However, underlying it is the serious Scandinavian tone of people suffering mental depression, of suicide, of isolation and not coping with life.

By way of contrast, the film is beautifully photographed, generally bright in colour, the mountains and the snow giving a distinctive Scandinavian flavour to the film.

1.A brief film? Portrait of Jomar? His trek? His physical journey, his psychological journey?

2.The beauty of the landscapes, the ski resort, the mountains, the snow, the ice? The houses in the middle of the snow? The small isolated village at the end? Realistic feel? The musical score?

3.The focus on Jomar, his initial hesitation to turn on the chairlift? People urging him on? His living alone? Aged thirty, relationships, the former girlfriend, the news of the son? His going to therapy, the discussions with the therapist? With the other patients? The interaction with the eccentric man, at the ski resort?

4.The decision to go on the journey, the hardships, the length of the journey? Through the snow and the mountains?

5.The encounters and their effect on Jomar? The young girl, with her grandmother? The isolated life? The young man on the machine, being welcomed, his homophobia, his way of getting drunk, the alcohol and the tampon? Shaving the head? The effect on Jomar, on him? Jomar continuing his journey? The tent on the ice, the old man? The discussions with him, his achievement in life, his philosophy? His daughter arriving, the provisions? Her attitude towards her father? The alcohol, Jomar and his always wanting a drink?

6.The old man, the sled, being tied to it, the flow of the ice, his going into the ice and dying? Jomar’s puzzle?

7.Jomar, arriving in the town, the possibility of a reconciliation with his girlfriend, the effect of seeing his son?