I had long envied the Londoners who had several chances to see the film at various festivals last year, and raved about it – and its friendly and helpful director Asif Kapadia.

The movie theatre is on the 5th floor of a wonderfully restored Art Noveau building complex in a hip and touristy neighbourhood, and has a lounge-like lobby, offering free tea-bags and free Irish beer from two of the festival’s sponsors. The festival screens English and Irish quality films that are in demand of German distributors.

We were a bit early, so while waiting for our fellow Bean fans to arrive, I thumbed thru the booklet of the festival, and read that Far North’s director would be in attendance and stay for a Q&A afterwards.

My brain immediately went numb; where are the intelligent questions when you need them??

Sylvia and Julia arrived, and we were all giggly and chatty and excited to see each other and talk in person. It is quite a difference to exchanging emails. And we impatiently waited for the doors to open, as it was past opening time, but we learned that the Q&A for the previous film was still going on. Finally they let us in, about 300 seats, but hardly more than 100 visitors, and a baby.

The moderator explained that they have invented the Centerpiece Screening this year, to give young and aspiring directors a chance to show their work. And with that she announced Asif Kapadia.

Asif: “Hello. We filmed Far North in Norway, and we were mostly living on this ship, all of us together, and it was not always fun. But more on this after the film. So enjoy it.”

And with that the ligths went off ...

It opens with a cold blue empty landscape, all snow and sheets of ice in a barely open water, then images of abandoned mines, old power poles, white spheres of unknown purposes take over. So the story could be happening in any time or in no particular one. The film ends with the same cold blue empty landscape, only now the water is frozen over.

I had the vague feeling that there was music during the film but it was so clever imbedded in the story that I didn’t really notice it. The film has hardly any dialogue (so dubbing or sub-titles were not needed), all the power comes from the images. This film is a good example why they are also called ‘Moving Pictures’! The film is no good candidate for the small screen; it really needs a screen as huge as possible!

Even though the pictures are so overwhelming, the director never looses track of the characters or their stories and fate, or judges their doings. They do what they have to do, and just do that to survive.

If you want to see the film because you want to hear Sean Bean’s lovely voice a lot, you’ll be disappointed. The most lines are from Michelle Yeoh, and even hers are few.
If you want to see Sean’s bare body in close-up running out on the ice, you’ll also be disappointed. He is shown from far away, and the short bit in the tent is so cleverly lighted that you hardly see anything.

If you want to see Michelle Yeoh doing some of her famous stunts and action work, you’ll be disappointed. Instead, she proves that she is indeed an actress capable of fine nuances.