Far North (2008)

Admirable film.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

FAR NORTH is one of those simple little under-the-radar movies that you never heard about until it turns up in the middle of the night and you gradually become enthralled watching it. With no buzz, publicity, or plot spoilers, I had no idea what to expect when I sat down to watch this, and I was pleasantly surprised by a film that confounded all of my expectations. The film is almost like a fairy tale in its simplicity: a mother-and-daughter team, living alone in the icy Siberian wastes, are joined by a soldier gone A.W.O.L. The film is about what happens next: how the power shifts and inevitable romance affects each character, and three people in such an isolated setting can never really work.Visually, the film is stunning. The inhospitable climate is a personality all in itself and the harshness of the landscape is captured in stunning detail – no more so than in the shocking opening sequence. There isn't a great deal of dialogue, but what we do get is natural and realistic. Key flashbacks add to the viewer's understanding and the film finishes on a shocking twist. Best of all is the acting: three actors giving excellent, against the grain performances.Michelle Krusiec is the young unknown, holding her own against two experienced hands. Sean Bean is a gentle and romantic man, giving a more touching performance than we usually see. Michelle Yeoh is the older woman, an outsider struggling to come to terms with the meaning of her life. Out of all three, it's Yeoh who gives the most stunning performance; she's totally cast against type (usually playing a kick-ass kung fu heroine) and she gets her character across wonderfully. What a revelation!

In an unspecified land of tundra and ice, a mother and daughter, estranged from their tribes-people, alone and on the run from a brutal hired army, are struggling to survive in this harsh, desolate landscape. Into their lives walks an escaped press-ganged soldier, barely alive, and a tragic chain of events is set in motion.London born film-maker Asif Kapadia knows how to capture isolation. He finds it in the sombre monochrome landscapes of this Arctic tale, and equally in the eyes of his lead actress, Michelle Yeoh. She plays Saiva, a woman who has borne a curse since birth foretelling that she will bring misfortune upon anyone who gets close to her. Forced out of her tribe, she lives nomadically, with only her grown-up daughter for company. Theirs is a never ending routine of hand-to-mouth survival and constant relocation to ever more lonely shores. The films' establishing shots of expansive ice flows are set to a soundtrack of groaning, creaking tension and cracks beneath the surface. Once Sean Bean's on- the-run Soldier arrives to upset the balance of their simple existence, it soon becomes apparent that Saiva shares much in common with the ice pack surrounding her.So effectively does Asif conjure the quiet, contemplative mood and pace of much Scandinavian or Russian cinema that it comes as quite a shock when the main trio of characters open their mouths (which they do only rarely) and talk in English. The point is that it does not matter what language they speak, as the location and even the precise period of this story is kept deliberately vague. Just as it matters not what strange language it is that the other invading soldiers speak to themselves, only that it is not familiar. They are the aliens here.For much of its short running time not a lot seems to be happening here, but there is not a wasted moment or unnecessary scene. Judicious use of flashbacks provide insight into the moments that have forged Saiva's tough and ruthless survival instincts. While in the present, much is communicated in silence by the glances of desire and jealousy that the trio exchange. Sean Bean comfortably inhabits the role of decent but morally weak man, but it's Michelle Yeoh's steely, haunted central performance that grabs and pulls you in. Like some Merchant-Ivory period drama stripped of all its airs and finery, we are in a world of suppressed emotions and mounting tensions. The palpable sense that something has to give is the overriding drive towards the startling climax.

For those of you who missed it, and that appears to be most who posted on here, the film is essentially a allegorical tale (ie a metaphor that appeals to the imagination rather than reason). In this film we are treading the difficult path of archetypes, mixed with shamanism from a pan-cultural Arctic perspective. Savia is the Exile, cursed from birth to bring destruction to those around her, she is also the Witch who once spurned by the fleeing near-dead Adventurer exacts revenge on her Ward by stealing her face to entice and deceive her spurning Lover. In a sense Bean's Loki pays the price for choosing the physical beauty and youth of Krusiec's Anja over gratitude to his Saviour Saiva (who by the way when he asks 'How can I repay you? Savia replies 'We shall see' implying she sees he has the debt of his life owing to her);An interesting addendum to this is that 'Loki' is the Scandinavian Trickster or Fool (much as he appears at the beginning of the film carrying his belongings this time on a sledge). Unlike the wise Fool who pays his debt however he takes the path of the real Fool and spurns the one who saves him. For this both have then to pay the price.Beautifully shot and directed, in lengthening the story it resembles many folk-tales of many cultures.

I really didn't understand the purpose of making this film. I think of myself as a pretty good film critic and most films I like the masses enjoy as well. This film was slow and quiet and I guess the climax was the shock value at the end. Shocking yes, but valued no. I was dissapionted and felt cheated, because there was no valid reason for her to kill someone she saved from death and raised like her own child. If she was a psycho path and the director gave us glempses of that then maybe it would have made sense. I mean, things should make some sense and what she did made none. I'm not one who needs movies wrapped up in a cute bow at the end so I leave happy, but cmon maaaan, this was disturbingly stupid and anyone who enjoyed this film must like contrived controversy. Well, to each his own, but this one could have stayed on the shelf.