Documentaries occupy that rare space between personal and cinematic; educational and entertaining. There were several Scandinavian entries at this year’s Sheffield Docfest and Nordic Watchlist was lucky enough to catch a couple of these films on their digital portal.
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL | Director: Mohamed Jabaly | Norway
Synopsis: Director Mohamed Jabaly embarked on a student trip to Norway, leaving behind his home city of Gaza. As his trip neared its end, the borders to his homeland were forcibly closed for an unspecified period. As a result, Mohamed found himself in a state of limbo, unable to leave Tromsø and the host family he was staying with. Taking the form of a video diary, this film records Mohamed’s efforts to obtain residency in Norway. Both urgent and poignant, Life Is Beautiful presents a moving and alternative take on what it means to come from Gaza.
Thoughts on the film: Has there ever been a more critical time to seek out the work of Palestinian filmmakers, to hear their voices cut through the politics and posturing? What Jabaly’s film lays bare is a complicated-to-navigate immigration system that seems to make decisions at the eleventh hour. Here the camera acts as the truth; as a way of understanding what it means to be Gazan. If your home city is destroyed, does your sense of self go with it? Jabaly’s calm voiceover, often directed to his mother, journeys through his memories of a happy childhood spent at the beach and the strain of finding his place in the world as an adult. Stuck in Tromsø (albeit surrounded by a fantastic network of colleagues and friends) he calls home to say, “You are there and I am here. I am living between two worlds, limited by screen size.” Life Is Beautiful asks hugely philosophical questions of identity, belonging and home. A very poignant watch.
LIFE ON THE EDGE | Director: Johnny Langenheim & Sebastian Feehan | Greenland
Synopsis: Once greatly troubled himself – haunted by a friend’s death and his own brushes with violence – Nuka has turned his life around. He journeys through the remote indigenous settlements of Greenland, speaking about mental health and suicide prevention. Surrounded by vast glaciers and ice sheets, a land at the very edge of the world, Nuka works with a troubled teen, a phlegmatic hunter and a single mother; each has demons they are trying to come to terms with, and a desire to break with cycles of inter-generational trauma.
Thoughts on the film: “Everyone in Greenland knows someone who has killed themselves. We have the highest suicide rate in the world,” a voiceover declares in the opening moments of the documentary. This is certainly a very hard-hitting watch as Nuka unravels three stories of addiction, violence, abuse and suicidal thoughts. For some in Greenland, the vast icy landscape is the only place they can find solace from their own mind. For others, it is a never-ending nothingness that only adds to the burden of daily existence. Most of the talking heads in the film are stoic, having been taught to repress their feelings and never show “weakness”. Loss echoes eerily through the film, with every single person able to list off a reem of deceased relatives and friends. It is a life spent in mourning or simply waiting for the next loved one to bury. Life on the Edge makes for bleak viewing yet, at the heart of it, Nuka’s determination to do better for the next generation indicates that there is hope for the future, after all.
Mary was covering film from this year’s Sheffield Docfest