Cinema
Pathfinder
Ofelaš
Nils Gaup · 1987
Synopsis
Around the year one thousand, in Finnmark, the young Aigin returns from hunting and sees his people massacred by a band of Chud raiders. Wounded, he flees to another group of Sami, where the shaman Raste tends him. There is debate: fight or flee to the coast. Aigin stays with a few hunters to set an ambush, but they are taken by surprise. The Chuds torture Raste; to make it stop, Aigin offers to guide them through the mountain.
Context
The first feature film spoken in Northern Sami, it takes up a legend the director had from his grandfather; the raiders speak an invented language, left without subtitles. It was shot on the Finnmark plateau in the winter of 1987, in temperatures of minus forty-seven degrees, with the coastal scenes at Berlevåg. Nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the first Norwegian film to be so since Ni liv in 1957, it received the Amanda for best film in 1988.
Who it is for
One hour twenty-six, in the Sami language, with subtitles: a chase through the snow, with a simple story and immense landscapes.
Prizes and reception
Honoured in Hollywood as in Oslo: nominated for the Oscar, winner of the main Amanda Award of 1988.