I have never actually seen a film in the NATIVe section before. This year, there is a focus on the arctic region and the groups of people living in those cold areas. I was drawn to these two films because they had animated components in them (I am such a sucker for that), and because they seem to be very personal stories by female film makers. The director for “Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest” was actually present, and she is this cute lady dressed in a Sami-inspired blouse and skirt (which is OK and not cultural appropriation when she does it) who repeated several times how happy and honored she was to be at the Berlinale. It was a lovely showing overall.
Bihttoš (Rebel)
Canada/Norway 2014, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, 14′
Being the daughter of a Sami father and Blackfoot mother, the director tells the story of her parents and how she finally learned about her father’s history which led to his lifelong depression.
The animation in this film was OK, but nothing to write home about. Maybe I should just accept that a low budget typically doesn’t allow for very good animation, and perhaps my expectations for animation is just too high. Other than that, the story was lovely, but also nothing to write home about. The director’s family is definitely very special and unusual, and their lives are so tragically scarred by the fact that they are indigenous people. Even though the film was far from being in your face activist, the message was still strong. At the same time, narratively this was essentially like a woman telling her family’s life story in 10 minutes at a dinner party, so despite the actually interesting family background I am not surprised the film is merely a short film.
Kuun metsän Kaisa (Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest)
Finland 2016, Katja Gauriloff, 86′
Similarly to the preceding short film, “Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest” is a partially animated quasi-autobiographical film (in this case about the director’s great-grandmother) telling the story about Kaisa’s friendship with a Swiss writer who ended up helping the Sami people after they lost everything during WWII.
While I thought the film was very interesting, it was actually one of the few times at the Berlinale when I explicitly felt like the film was slow. This is notable because I usually avoid the slow artsy films at the Berlinale (or they don’t feel very slow to me because the slow pace matches my enjoyment of the film). A part of me really loves the film and its topic, and another part thought that it was strangely paced and at times almost boring because of that. I’m also not entirely sure what to think of Kaisa, which is actually a compliment to the film because it depicts her as just a human individual and not just some indigenous person without a specific personality attached. On one hand she is awesome, on the other hand you can tell that she’s “no angel” either, as the film says. In some aspects she reminded me of Vivian Maier who seems like she was an amazing woman yet somehow a monster at the same time.
I have to admit that I have an almost racist fascination with Sami people (which is another reason why I ended up in this screening). Just like how as a little child I had trouble understanding why Jewish people were ostracized and persecuted because in my mind they looked like Germans, I am surprised by the level of hostility towards the Sami because to my eyes they basically look like other white people. I learned through the film that they are Orthodox and of course have a very different culture from other Scandinavian ethnic groups, but I guess I just don’t have enough of an understanding to what makes a group of people treat another group badly when they could just as well co-exist in a friendly manner.
Just like before, I was actually not particularly into the sloppy and dark animated parts, though the story Kaisa tells is kind of cool. I think my favorite parts of the film were those in which you could see glimpses of Sami life, and I was deeply touched by the hardships they went through during WWII. So props to that movie for getting its point across.