By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Heidi Ewing | Rachel Grady
Year: 2025
Running time: 105
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34966025/
Chris says: “Nearly two decades after their feature debut THE BOYS OF BARAKA, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady come full circle with another documentary about an unconventional school, albeit one far different from the earlier film’s inner city Baltimore 7th graders transplanted to Kenya. Here, the subject is a ‘folk school’ in northern Norway where teens from numerous countries learn survival skills through team building in a harsh environment, working primarily with a pack of sled dogs.
“FOLKTALES centers on three students, each of whom have their own challenges to overcome and their individual ways of confronting them. While their fairly standard story arcs all engage, I was far more impressed with the film’s visual style which highlights the fragmented, near-abstract beauty of an often sunless winter above the Arctic circle, along with how it incorporates the Norse myth of the red thread connecting people from various cultures. Such motifs distinguish this from your average documentary of this stripe. 3.5 cats”