5/5
Review by John P. Harvey.
Sámi artist Lena (Risten Anine Kvernmo Gaup) returns from Oslo to her home town of Sápmi, in the north of Norway, with her young son, Jonas Anta (Elias Ánte Pilutaq Gaup Lennert), for a few months over winter. Lena hopes to interview female reindeer herders in order to portray in paintings the problems that face them. A difficult decision she took as a reindeer herder herself before moving away to Oslo has left her quietly ashamed and leads some of her intended interviewees to shun her. She begins nonetheless to get somewhere with the project, and meets reindeer herder Máhtte (Nils Ailu Kemi), whose mother she hopes to interview. Máhtte, who herds with his best friend and his uncle, himself faces disheartening challenges to his livelihood, not least in the rigidity of his mother.
Máhtte and Lena are both very sympathetic characters, but the undeniable attraction between them seems doomed: Lena’s future lies in art, which means returning to Oslo; Máhtte’s future lies in becoming manager of his mother’s herd as well as his own, which means remaining in the vicinity of Sápmi. As well, Máhtte’s mother, Gáren (Berit Ánne Oskal Kemi), declares that Máhtte will not become herd manager unless he marries a far more practical dynastic match, a woman in whom he has no romantic interest.
The movie centres on this multifaceted conflict, approaching it from different directions and always at an interesting pace. In their feature-film debuts (under the direction of Sara Margrethe Oskal in her own directorial feature-film debut), Kverno Gaup and Kemi bring to extraordinary life the authentic drama of a romance that burns fiercely despite the opposition of those nearly as unforgiving as the dynamic winter landscape. Tender closeups and magisterial landscapes alike filmed lovingly, and with an original soundtrack adding warmth to the Norwegian winter, The Tundra Within Me evokes romantically the transformative power of sensitive truthfulness, loyalty, and generosity of spirit.
Screening at Palace cinemas.