J Paul Johnson
Folktales, a new documentary from Oscar-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (the brilliant Jesus Camp), focuses on what must be one of the world’s most unconventional academic experiences. Just some 200 miles from the Arctic Circle in Norway, a set of teenagers study—if that is the right word—at a “folk school” where their learning consists almost entirely of caring and leading a pack of sled dogs. For three teens in particular, each of them facing their own life challenges, this “gap year” of sorts becomes a life-changing and ultimately affirming experience, teaching them what a modern school can not. Folktales is thus both a compelling coming-of-age documentary and a quiet meditation on the limits of conventional school experiences, one directed with considerable affection and talent.
Let’s first acknowledge the degree of difficulty in making a verité-style documentary under circumstances like these. Ewing and Grady deserve credit just for finding their topic. For one, there are some 400 folk schools in Denmark with a range of varying foci, but only a handful where students spend their time raising and training sled dogs. To travel to and follow the students’ journey in the harsh Arctic cold, letting their cameras capture an academic year’s worth of footage, and then focus adroitly on three compelling protagonists and their two charismatic, caring teachers is another challenge. Folktales is nearly seamlessly edited and told. And, finally, Ewing and Grady bring to their film a narrative and visual conceit that ties the teens’ journey to Norwegian folklore.
More than anything else, though, Folktales is an affecting coming-of-age tale for the film’s three selected protagonists. They are Hege, a blond girl still grieving the loss of her father and striving for self-confidence; Bjørn Tore, an athletic and confident young boy excited for the adventure; and Romaine, a dark-tousled introvert constantly doubting his own abilities. At the school they meet their two teachers, the sweet and smart Iselin, who reminds them that the human brain is poorly wired for the modern world, and Thor-Atle, a gruff but inspiring veteran sled dog trainer who is nothing if not clear about the perils of the cold.
Along the way, Ewing and Grady skillfully develop the personalities of each of the three teen protagonists, avoiding any simplistic characterizations and staying largely out of the way of the developing storyline. In Folktales, there are no direct-camera interviews or participants other than those involved in the endeavor itself. There are only a very few and brief instances of nondiegetic text and music. Even so, Ewing and Grady let us know all we need to about this school that lets the challenges of sled-dog raising stand for what students need to learn about nature, biology, and teamwork.
The huskies themselves also make for compelling characters. Each develops its own unique bond with the other dogs and with their human trainer, and, over the course of time, Hege, Bjørn Tore, and even hesitant Romaine come to bond deeply with their canine charges. To graduate, the three must skillfully navigate their team of dogs on a trek through the Arctic’s most treacherous terrain and deepest cold—what Thor-Atle calls, only half-jokingly, “the wind kill factor.” It’s no mean feat. To watch these teens, on the cusp of adulthood, find meaning in their challenge is not just heartwarming; it’s deeply affirming of the potential of the young to face obstacles, confront fears, and emerge from their experience better, stronger individuals with more complete understandings of their own obligations to others.
None of that would be possible without their teachers, and while Folktales is clearly a tale focusing on the teens, their teachers deserve special mention. Thor-Atle and Iselin are, on the surface, an unlikely pair, the former gruff and foreboding, the latter gentle and unassuming, bit both without question have their students’—and their dogs’—best interests at heart. Each of them knows exactly how and when to question, demand, and ultimately encourage their students. That this particular folk school has students and teachers—and dogs—in such close contact for so long encourages a considerable amount of individual attention and trust.
That two New Yorkers, Ewing and Grady, could venture on their own to Arctic Norway, to work with a Norwegian crew in the constant cold to film this unusual school and find in it such profound meaning is its own kind of miracle. Clearly, the filmmakers could not have known exactly what to expect when crossing the Atlantic to film a group of Gen-Z students on an unusual gap year experience. But what they found there speaks a universal and highly optimistic truth about the potential of the young to become fully realized young adults. Folktales is an unconventional coming of age story, but it’s extraordinarily well told and ultimately affirming.
