01-05-2025
The moving story of family who went to live off-grid in the Norwegian wilderness before being hit by devastating loss
A British-Norwegian couple who went off-grid with their family in the wilderness before suffering a tragedy have been featured in a moving new documentary.
Nik and Maria Payne lived an isolated life with their four children, home-schooling them in a self-sufficient home in a forest in Norway where they lived off the land.
They had no television in their property on a small farm - with the children instead encouraged to chop wood with an axe, raise animals and sell them for pocket money.
But Maria died of cancer aged 41 in 2019 - leaving Nik as a single parent to Ulv, three, Falk, six, Freja, nine, and Ronja, 15, Maria's daughter from a previous relationship.
Now, their extraordinary life is being featured in an award-winning new documentary film called 'A New Kind of Wilderness' which is coming to UK cinemas from May 16.
The 84-minute movie by director Silje Evensmo Jacobsen has already won awards at the Sundance Film Festival, Seattle Film Festival and Budapest Film Festival.
A New Kind of Wilderness is out in UK cinemas from May 16
