Asif Kapadia speaks about making ‘Far North’
My co- writer Tim and I had discussed many projects to follow up The Warrior, it took us a long time to find the right idea, but once I read the short story ‘True North’ by Sara Maitland, I felt a tingle of excitement I had not felt since Tim first mentioned the tale of the Samurai Boy being shown a severed head which eventually developed into The Warrior. There was something exciting in the idea of filming this timeless tale in the Arctic in direct contrast to the hot Indian desert. Tim and I love folk tales and classic fairy stories and this one had the same special feeling, although here the lead character’s journey was complex and dark. Saiva’s story did not end in redemption but in her carrying out a horrific deed fulfilling the curse the shaman pronounced when she was born. I was interested in the ambiguity of the relationship in the short story between the two women, I was never sure if the older woman and younger woman were mother and child, sisters, cousins or even lovers. It was not clear. They survived together, they needed one another to stay alive, if one left the other would probably die. In the short story they didn’t even have names, there was no need, they hardly spoke to one another. Suddenly everything changed when the man came into their lives. The women began to compete for his attention and grew apart. It was important to me to work once again with the crew of The Warrior, key members of the team that I have collaborated with since making my short films at film school. So once again Bertrand Faivre was producing, Tim Miller and I co-wrote, Roman Osin was the DOP, Andy Shelley was the sound recordist and sound designer, Ewa J. Lind edited and Dario Marianelli was the composer. I was working with my friends, my ‘film family’. I went into the project thinking this would be a simple, low budget film. We had the essential story, the beginning, middle and an amazing end. It featured only three people and one key location, the set consisted of a lone tent in the middle of nowhere. It could be shot anywhere. The story took place mainly within interiors. There was little dialogue. After spending so much time looking for projects, we had our story, it was all there, our first ‘adaptation’, I honestly thought it would be simple. What could go wrong? I believed we could write it swiftly, cast it, finance it and shoot it without too much talking or ‘development’. Tim and I could then get on with thinking about the next one, maybe something bigger and more complex … Little did I know the film 
would take us more than four years to make. We would be shooting out of one of the northernmost settlements in the world. We needed armed protection everywhere we went in case we came across a hungry polar bear, the unit lived on a Russian ice breaker, which travelled over night to each new location as we slept. At times the temperature dropped to minus 40 degrees…This film would prove harder and more logistically complex than anything I have previously done. Now the film is complete, I’m back in London day dreaming about the awe inspiring Arctic, though the feeling is only just coming back to my frostbitten fingertips!
Asif Kapadia
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Asif Kapadia discovered the vast, open landscapes of Norway on a visit to the Tromso Film Festival, the northern most film festival in the world. He was fascinated by the area and decided to base Far North there.
Among the various troubles faced by the cast and crew was the terrible cold of Svalbard, where most of the movie was shot. Some part of this problem was solved by using local people to play various parts in the movie, the outdoor aspects of which were shot in a continuous schedule over 4 weeks in autumn 2006 with the cast and crew living on board a ship—the Russian ice-breaker, The Polaris. As the temperature fluctuated, several crew members fell ill, and Michelle Yeoh fainted while performing one of her scenes. Four logistic people with guns were hired just to protect the crew from polar bears.
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blogged by Shamath Mazumdar, NDTV Lumiere
Tags: Asif Kapadia, Dario Marianelli, Far North, Michelle Yeoh, Roman Osin, World Cinema
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Gosh. There was this time back then when I was so wanting to see this film. 2 factors, AK’s take and secondly the story. Read so much that getting hold of this movie was all that mattered. Then dday did come.
I just felt like being brought to a screeching halt after the viewing. No, no regrets, but it kinda shook me up. Sara Maitland – how do you come up with such a story? Watched it once. No regrets. But thats it. This Saturday it was telecast on TV. Obviously I didnt do a repeat. But do watch this film whenever possible ppl. Its worth it. Tx for writing @ this film NDTVL…
I never liked ‘Warrior’ …definitely would love to watch this one…even if it is just for the ice-capped landscape..