Latest news with #Pasvik
New York Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Folktales' Review: A Bracing Education in Arctic Norway
At Pasvik Folk High School, where the curriculum revolves around Nordic traditions and survival skills, cellphones are not verboten, but eventually their lure subsides. What's a tiny screen got, after all, on the aurora borealis and a pack of gallant sled dogs? As the school's principal puts it, with impressive understatement, Pasvik, in the far northern reaches of Norway, offers 'a lot more than a gap year.' Focusing on three students and two dog-sledding instructors, the directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady chronicle a year at Pasvik — part of a Norwegian program that began almost two centuries ago — in their lyrical and intimate documentary 'Folktales.' The gifted teachers offer encouragement, wisdom and compassion, but never coddling. Students from around the world learn to hunt and build fires, to care for the Huskies and endure the monthslong polar night, all while navigating that poignant and charged phase on the cusp of adulthood. In interviews with the filmmakers, the students profiled — two from Norway, one from the Netherlands — are exceptionally forthcoming, describing the challenges they hope to overcome: acute social anxiety, difficulty making friends, intense grief. The most dramatic transformation is that of Hege, 19, a self-described 'big overthinker' who can't bring herself to pack fewer than four mascaras for her year in the Arctic, and who gradually stops longing for her 'fancy pillow' back home and embraces the wild beauty around her. Employing eloquent drone shots and macro footage, Ewing and Grady ('Jesus Camp') capture an almost abstract splendor in the setting. They thread a metaphor from Norse mythology through the film, and leave such prosaic matters as tuition costs unmentioned. There is poetry as well as deep affection in their close-ups of people and dogs, and lessons for any age in the way students tumble off their sleds and get right back up. FolktalesNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters.
Geek Tyrant
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Great Trailer For Widely Praised Documentary FOLKTALES Following Wilderness School For Teens and Sled Dogs — GeekTyrant
Magnolia Pictures has released a fantastic trailer for their documentary feature Folktales , from Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, who previously made Jesus Camp , 12th & Delaware , Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You , One of Us , Dogs , and I Carry You With Me . The film's synopsis reads: 'In Norse mythology, the three "Norns" are powerful deities who weave the threads of fate and shape humans' futures. Today, Pasvik Folk High School in northern Norway aims to produce a similar life-changing effect on its students. 'Folktales tells the timely and heartwarming story of teenagers who choose to spend an unconventional 'gap year' learning to dog sled and survive the Arctic wilderness, in hopes of finding connection and meaning in the modern world. 'Guided by patient teachers and a yard full of heroic Alaskan huskies, they discover their own potential and develop deep relationships with the land, animals and humans around them. 'Through intimate verité storytelling and exhilarating cinematography, Ewing and Grady examine humans on the cusp of adulthood, finding themselves at the edge of the world.' This looks like a beautifully made film, and it's really cool that it covers a place most of us have never heard of. The dog aspect of the pic is just the cherry on top. I love dogs, and these ones look like they truly enhance the lives of the kids they connect with. Check out the trailer below, and watch Folktales in select US theaters on July 25th.
