STELLA POLARIS
A film review by Gareth Rees
Copyright 1993 Gareth Rees
Director: Knut Erik Jensen Starring: Anne Krigsvoll, Ketil Hoegh, Eirin Hargaut, Vegard Jensen Producer: Egil Odegard Script: Knut Erik Jensen Music: Mats Claesson Length: 89 mins Release: Norway 1993
A woman lies in a hospital bed and remembers her childhood in a fishing village in northern Noway. It is not clear why she is in hospital--perhaps she has been in a car accident--and she may even be two different women (mother and daughter?) at two different times. She drifts through the landscapes of memory like a ghost, sometimes seeing her village deserted, abandoned, empty; sometimes seeing it peopled by her younger self (or her daughter?) and the people she knew.
The film chronicles her youth without words, almost without plot, using images and music only. It has a lot of the feel of a documentary--we see Germany occupying Noway in the second world war and burning the village to the ground when they leave; we see the villagers returning after the war to rebuild; we see the traditional fishing industry of small boats (with wives tying hooks and gutting fish) being replaced by fish factories and larger, more dangerous trawlers.
This material is rendered out of order in flashback and intercut with real documentary film (and sequences in black and white pretending to be real documentary film) and it is often hard to make sense of, especially with the ambiguities over the role(s) of the central character. The result is a film that manages to create an atmosphere of timeless people and landscape enduring through a changing society, but which loses out on character. I found it hard work, but others may be able to relax into the dreamy feel of the fjords and enjoy.
--- Gareth Rees
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