Far North: Not so far away, the story
iView Author: Arthi V (Delhi, India)
Email: vasudevan.arthi [at] gmail [dot] com
Far North: Not so far away, the story
Why did I see this film?
Because I wanted to. Since quite some time. Read about the story. Saw snippets. Read the interviews. Liked the director’s approach. Unique for the fact he doesn’t relate to the concept of having heavy dialogues and the likes. Cinema is a visual medium. For him, the backdrop of the narrative infact comes to the forefront in defining the characters and the story. Leave it to the audience to see and feel the story and characters. Not through words. It kind of made me go ‘Ohk…That is different’. That’s true in a way, for cinema. I liked his interpretation of it.
This stuck in my head. Read more. About the story, plot, actors, why they chose the film, director’s take. Pretty much everything except the ending. I was aware that it was an ending that was gory, that’s it.
It just made me want to see the film at the next available chance. And see I did; just today.
And ever since I’m asking the question – Why did I see it?
No, I am not able to say I am regret it but it just crossed the boundary of what I had thought could be “the gory ending”. The one final act by Saiva that stunned me. That terrified me. That repulsed me. That one act that has stayed with me and made me question myself – Why?
I think the same mixed feelings were portrayed by Loki too in the last scene. Rightly so. When characters in a film are not just “real in the film”, but are real people whom the audience can relate to then their actions do affect the viewers. No, this definitely does not imply that what Saiva did was normal or that anyone in her place would do. Definitely no. I think she bordered on having psychopathic tendencies. But what I could question was what if someone is conditioned to live a life of such complete isolation, feelings and longing for company becoming a dormant volcano that erupts at the first sight of a man. Then what happens? To what extent will she (’She’ as this film focuses on that, nothing more) go to get him?
An action like that can be a possibility then. Not to that extent, but at a degree where ‘gory’ had a meaning that I (or anyone else, that’s subjective) understand, yes. And this is very unsettling a thought.
Far North is based just there. In the cold, extremely harsh icy lands of the Arctic.
We are introduced to two women who apparently have been living here ever since. Older one, Saiva (Michelle Yeoh); a young woman Anja (Michelle Krusiec). The first few scenes define this living. Brutal but quiet killing of the dog for food, constant shifting of their shanty far far away from any sign of human settlement, the activities of daily life – eating raw meat, using tools made from bones, making them, stitching, other things that reveal these women are here as though they were born in the Artic. No past no future with the outside world. The world that had other people as well.
There are hardly any words spoken throughout. Only actions and the backdrop say most. Icebergs, glaciers, a reindeer her, a seal (or walrus? Sorry for my ignorance here; will check once I’m done with this) there. A boat to navigate through, a gun to kill prey, a knife to defend, fire made using friction, eating raw or partially cooked meat and when nothing, just sitting outside the shanty looking out. At nothing but ice, the mountains and the vast sky. An occasionally sigh. Nothing more. No one else.
Until Loki (Sean Bean) drops nearly dead a few feet away from their shanty. Skeptical, Saiva gets him inside to tend to him only to unknowingly allow him to enter the world that only she and Anja shared but one that was solely defined by her. Loki (a soldier) gets better, is extremely grateful to Saiva. Friendly, slightly leaning in, merely touching of the hand to guide the motor boat are Loki’s gestures that start to break Saiva and intensify her longing for a companion she had lost.
Yes, moving back in time to show snippets of her past – Saiva is one who is cursed by a Sharman at birth that she is kind of evil and noone who lives with her would ever survive. Adding to this, Saiva loses her family and lover to the atrocities of some Russian officers. She manages to save a baby (Anja) and move so away from all and so into the deserted icelands of the Arctic that a new equation of her existence with Anja gets defined. Actually, it’s not a equation as both live together but are not at the same level at all. Saiva has a past that brings her here; Anja knows nothing of what normal existence is like but has to be here. No way out. Till Loki comes in, of course.
Loki and Anja fall for each other. As Loki begins to show affection for Anja and vice-versa Saiva gets jealous. Tensions simmer and Saiva tries in her own ways to break this. Her own attraction for Loki makes her look at Anja with strong disapproval that Anja is unable to handle. Until the two make a final decision – Loki and Anja decide to leave for a better future and lead a normal existence.
That’s it for Saiva. At first, I felt she is upto something as she just clams up. When everything is packed, Anja tries to reconcile. ‘Do you want to come with us Saiva?’ She sits there. Silent and stone-faced. Suddenly later, “I’ll comb your hair. You’ve to look good to Loki when he returns (he is out for some stuff, errand) when you two leave” I thought, Ok, she is coming to terms. Next, she is plaiting her hair when Anja gets up for something. A jerk. She forces her to sit. “Wait, till I’m done” That’s it. I knew what was coming. It came. But after that, what Saiva does, confounded me. It’s to be seen to be believed. No words. Only the feelings of horror and repugnance. Loki returns. What I felt was then, ok, got it now. His fate. But still there was a deviance here. Made the last three scenes different. The approach.
For the ending I thought that would so straight.
Asif Kapadia is a director who has his own style and sensibility of understanding how to make films. It works big time. (I’ve seen The Return, too. Very nicely done film. Am unable to find a copy of The Warrior yet.). All the three actors are very effective as their characters are very well-etched out. Smallest of expressions and actions add lot of meaning to the scene and the narrative taking the story forward.
The story is the winner here. Frankly, it is not a commercial film, but one that should be seen by any lover of good cinema. Ideally, it should be watched on the big screen. Unfortunately I couldn’t.
I have the story ‘True North’ by Sara Maitland on which this film is based. I had decided to read it once I had seen the film. I have seen it now. Will I read it? Not sure. Probably yes.
The film. Wanted to see it. Saw it. Good, I saw it. Will watch again? I guess not; for quite a while.
Tags: World Cinema
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Do you work in Evalueserve by any chance? :D. Sorry!
loved warrior.. irfanlove more than anything.. i’d given up faith with ‘The return’.. but seems ‘far north’ is more the return.. looking forward
@ Siddharth – Where did u manage to see ‘The Warrior’?
Mumbai Film Fest.. but i think it made an appearance on TV as well..
I need to check these out soon. Have heard a lot about The Warrior.
I liked the movie too – the ending was unbelievably gory, yes, but when you look back you notice that hints have been there all along – all the close up shots of how they handle the seals (I think they’re seals, too). Michelle Yeoh does a brilliant job and the scenery is something really unusual. I’d probably see it again, though with a sense of dread as the end approaches.
And yes, I’ve seen The Warrior, too, at the NFAI Film Club at Pune. Lovely movie, if you put it side by side with Far North you can clearly see it’s the work of the same director.
Sudarshan, how were these hints man…when she kills the dog, she actually prays and holds the dog near before the knife talks. Anja makes the next kills for food. None by MY, if I remember right.
On the other hand, the manner in which she kills the four / five Russian officers, well, that indeed was a hint to what kind of person she was. True, MY is superb.
Asif Kapadia in an interview said that he was quite worried if MY would agree to do the role. He wanted her to. So when he had gone scouting for location (the film is actually shot in remote part of Norway not the Arctic Tundra) he had taken a few pictures and videos to understand what he would be getting into. He showed these to her too along with the script. She really found it quite intriguing and agreed to do the film.
Now she is India, and wants AK to come up with a film based here.
??