Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a review from one of our many spies out there of a little publicized flick called FAR NORTH from director Asif Kapadia, who did a film called THE WARRIOR a while back, then dipped his toe into the studio filmmaking waters with THE RETURN, then ran back to the indie world. What's interesting to me about this flick is the cast. I'm a big fan of Sean Bean and Michelle Yeoh is still awesome... I'll forget she was in the last shitty Mummy movie for the time being. It's been in the can for a while, which usually isn't the best sign in the world, but a reader went to a BFI screening and Q&A for the flick recently and felt compelled to write in about it. Here's Der Kaiser with his review (followed by the trailer for the flick):
I watched Far North a couple of weeks ago at the BFI, the film was followed by a short Q&A with the Director Asif Kapadia. His first film 'The Warrior' is a personal favourite of mine, a film that demands to be seen. Between that and Far North he made a studio picture in the US starring Buffy which is called The Return, which I paid no attention to. 'Far North' was based on a short story and stars Michelle Yeoh, Sean Bean and Michelle Krusciek (hotness) as the three principal characters and much like The Warrior the environment is almost a fourth character. Kapadia shot on location in the northernmost regions of Norway and the cast and crew's hard work pays off well as he makes the most of the stark desolate landscapes of the near Arctic, it's quite stunning in parts. The narrative itself is fairly simple Saiva (Yeoh) and Anja (Krusciek) are two women that have lived together, alone for an indeterminate number of years. Into this comes Loki (Bean) a man Saiva finds one day close to death. As he is nursed back to health Saiva and Anja find themselves vying for his attentions. Of course nothing is ever that simple and it all resolves in tragedy. Michelle Yeoh aside I felt the acting a little ropey in parts, the scenes requiring Krusciek and Bean to flirt come across as fake but those moments aside the performances are good. The ending is almost worth the price of admission alone. Kapadia plays with the viewer by giving you exactly what you expected but when the moment transpires it's over and above anything you expect. Seriously you will not see this coming. Like his first film 'Far North' is undeniably beautiful to look at thought I don't feel the narrative is quite as well thought out. What it seems is a moral fable or bad fairytale is in some ways too grounded in reality to really be effective. I also got the sneaking feeling that the film makers were enthralled by the shock ending and thought it was enough reason to make the film. Yeah.. almost but on reflection I think it was a little ambitious despite some nice ideas which I felt were left undeveloped; for example, if we are to believe that Anja has been raised alone by Saiva her whole life, why does she not seem uneasy by the sudden presence of a man for the first time in her life. Also despite the attempt at creating something mythical and timeless there is the slightly cliched plot device of two women fighting over a man - it seems when it comes to guys women can be right bitches to one another. Whatever happened to chicks before dicks? I guess that's what happens when men write women's roles. Still I'd recommend it as good alternative to all the festive crap out at the moment, at least they tried something original. The Q&A that followed was informative as the writer and director both spoke about the develpment process of the script and the arduous task of making of the film. Though neither spoke about possible next projects. Kapadia did say that Krusciek chased him for her role and felt an affinity to it because she is adopted herself. Hope all is well love your site if you use this sign it off as Der Kaiser :)
