Our take
When forming a nation, governments would like to view the entire populace as one people– for example, the Norwegians live in Norway. But plenty of these nations have smaller populations of different ethnicities, some that have been on the land far longer than the nation itself. Pathfinder is the first ever feature film depicting the Sámi people, depicting one of their tales. The film plays out like a familiar folk adventure, where a boy comes of age through clever thinking, but it also mirrors their struggle to keep their culture from Norwegianization, to protect their people from extinction. Pathfinder may not have the best special effects, but there’s a beauty in the way writer-director Nils Gaup depicts his home county of Finnmark, and the way he depicts his people’s past.
Synopsis
Around the year 1000 AD warlike people, the so-called "tjuder", roam in northern Scandinavia. As they brutally kill a family in a remote area, including the parents and their little daughter, the family's teenage son, Aigin, observes the slaughter. He manages to flee from these killers and reaches a camp with other Sámi whose inhabitants are worried if he has been able to hide his track. Afraid of the murderous people, they decide to flee to the coast. The boy stays alone to avenge his family's murder. Unfortunately, they get him before he can do anything and force him to lead them to the other Sámi. He guides them but has a plan to destroy the barbarous people before reaching the camp.
Storyline
Finnmark, around 1000 AD. After witnessing the brutal murder of his family by a rival tribe, a young Sámi man named Aigin flees to the nearby village and makes a plan to save the entire tribe.
TLDR
It’s actually funny how the stunt doubles, not the cast, complained about the cold to the point they refused to work.
What stands out
For some reason, out of all the scenes here, the bear fight is the one that stood out to me the most. Don’t get me wrong– it feels like the shot was possible due to a person wearing a fairly realistic bear costume– but there’s something about it that feels less eerie than having a CGI bear.