31/08/2007

Far North, the new film of London-born director Asif Kapadia was presented on the Lido as part of the Venezia notte midnight screenings. It is the director’s second film of a planned quartet covering the four points of the compass. His much-admired The Warrior [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was the first in the series and represented the East.

Far North tells a not unusual story of revenge and jealousy set in a highly unusual place: the Arctic tundra. Saiva (Michelle Yeoh) is a cursed woman who lives far away from the rest of humanity with only her adopted daughter Anja (Michelle Krusiec) for company. When a stranger (Sean Bean) arrives, the precarious balance of their already fragile existence is further threatened as both vie for the man’s attention.

Kapadia switches between majestic outdoor shots and the intimate interior of the women’s tent, thus hinting at larger tensions between the personal and the natural, between learnt behaviour and instinct.

The director describes the shoot on location in Norway as unforgettable but harrowing, with temperatures plummeting to minus forty degrees at times, which caused problems with the cast and crew as well as with filming equipment.

Kapadia again worked with many of his film family created for The Warrior, including the talented director of photography Roman Osin and composer Dario Marianelli (they both also worked on Wright’s Pride & Prejudice [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

Far North was produced by The Bureau and co-produced by PJB Picture Company, FilmCamp and Natixis Coficine in association with Soficinema and Cofinova and with backing from Film Four, Ingenious Film Partners and Celluloid Dreams. The latter also handles international sales.