Review of 'folktals': adolescents connect with nature in a different type of school

For centuries, mythology sought the gods to explain a disturbing world. But in the new documentary “Folktals”, by the filmmakers of “Jesus Camp”, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Gray, which follows a trio of Scandinavian teenagers confused to a remote Norwegian school that builds character in the wild snow, the response to life can go in what “God” delight back.

In other words, yes, we go to dogs: sled dogs, specifically, whose personalities, purpose and compatibility are the secret sauce for a lesson plan that seeks to remove children from their heads and a stronger sense of itself. The beautiful Huskies of Alaska and Siberia that encourage the instruction of dog inclination at the Pasvik High School high school in Norway are those that help raise this generously photographed film above the usual heart.

Ewing and Graty are not oblivious to this scenario, after having observed young people at risk of Baltimore who strive to stability (“the children of Baraka”) and the unhappy Jasidic Jews who try to retire from everything they have known (“one of us”). The situation is less serious sociologically in the “popular stories”, but it is no less convincing as a subject or less worthy of empathic attention, especially when the potential transformation stage is as enthusiastic as the birthplace of the Vikings.

Pasvik is 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, which means that self -sufficiency is not optional and the tissue has more practical weight than learning a mathematical formula. As sabbatical year institutions dedicated to promoting transition to adulthood, popular schools have roots that date back to the 19th century. Pasvik sees survival training as an unlock potential in adolescents too dedicated to the screens of their phones. As the coexisting teacher of Lingües of dogs Ilin expresses it to the students, she wants to “awaken her brains of the stone age.”

For hege anxious and 19 -year -old bubbly, who lost his father and fights with image problems, disconnecting is difficult at the beginning. But she responds to her benefits, especially when Odin's care is entrusted, a beautiful and adorable canine with an expressive howl. Bjorn socially uncomfortable wants to stop sheltering sad thoughts and guess your nerdyiness. Nothing like a majestic creature that rewards its undivided attention, then, to renounce the energies of one. When students have the task of spending two nights in the forest alone with only their assigned hunters and their insight to camping, their struggles give way to a turning point, which another good heart instructor describes as the special inner peace that comes with only “a fire, a dog and a sky with a hunger sky.”

It also brings together that Ewing and Gray may have been looking for some inspiration themselves. Therefore, some artistic montages of the icy desert (including some wool and woo-woo tree symbol) and an environment closer to the warm focus than objective research.

That makes the “popular stories” decidedly more dusty than densely packed: all red cheeks, slow camaraderie and the healing power of directing a sled dog through impressive land. It seems stimulating, and if the filmmakers are ultimately there to play, not to probe, it is fine, even if you do not know these children in the end better than at the beginning. It is difficult to say if Romain of desertion of the secondary school of negative mentality will end on the other side of what worries him. But we see how happy it is doing friends and glimpseing alces in nature. It is a simple message, but “popular stories” sells it: nourish through nature.