Day 69 - Nordfor Sola

banff!

This evening we went to the see the Banff Mountain Film Festival tour.  It's a series of short films on the incredible stuff that people get up to, in the name of fun and adventure.

There was a film about kayaking down waterfalls on an unfeasibly beautiful river in Mexico.  In another, a young man in a wingsuit flies perilously close to the ground high in the summer Alps.   In New Zealand, a bunch of mountain bikers perform impressive (for a few minutes, anyway) jumps and spins.   In Norway, skiiers fling themselves off the tops of mountains, and descend almost vertical faces in a kind of a semi-controlled fall.

One that I'd been really looking forward to was a 5 minute short called 35, which had really intrigued me when studying the playlist beforehand.  Ostensibly, it's about an american climbing 35 in 35 - 35 routes on his 35th birthday.   

(Wuss...he can come back when he's 50!)

Anyway, it ended up being an odd film with almost no climbing, and not much of a story.  It was just a series of clips with some rambling narration.  Disappointingly, it didn't really grab my attention at all. 

The first film of the evening was one of the best.  Entitled Sensei, and was a little bit of a Karate Kid for climbers.   Dan Woods, an amazingly strong and very successful young american climber, is taught patience by 43 year old climbing legend Yuji Hirayama.   Dan is super strong, but very inexperienced.   The duo set off for Borneo to attempt super hard sport routes high on Mount Kinabalu.   

Great film...fun, inspirational, dramatic and inspiring.  

But by far the most engaging movie of the show was Nordfor Sola (North of the Sun).

Two young Norwegians decide to spend 9 months, through the cold, dark Arctic winter, living on a remote beach in Northern Norway.   They have minimal equipment, and resolve to build a cabin using flotsam and jetsam collected from the beach.

Believe it or not, their main reason to be there is to surf the big waves crashing onto the beach.  Even in the depths of the Arctic winter, when the sun doesn't come up for weeks on end, they're surfing...

Isolated from the world for extended periods, they spend time chopping wood...reflecting...clearing rubbish...changing...surfing...evolving.

It's a truly remarkable film.   It's atmospheric, thought provoking, laugh out loud funny, and brilliantly made.

Two young men in their early 20's, teaching the world lessons in economic, sustainable, practical living, recycling, reusing, improving their corner of the world just because it seems like the right thing to do.

If you get the opportunity, go see it.

You won't regret it.