Norwegian Woods (OT)

I am the spirit of the wild
that protects and preserves
the very meaning of your soul
by breaking down your steps
in small pieces...

This ski movie portrays the value and beauty of wild nature and the joy of being in nature. Nature is not only our playground it is the premise for life and our fundament. Often, ski movies portray the human using nature as a playground, in a hectic and action oriented way, where the human ego is in center.

This movie is rather portraying the importance of being present, of enjoying and take in the mighty surroundings the mountains have to offer. The movie is not the standard ski movies, it is eco-philosophical, it shows compositions where man is small in big scenery and it is slow moving as this is how I experience being in nature - not hectic but harmonious and peaceful.
The movie has no dialogue, but a Norwegian poet has developed a narrative to accentuate the essence of the movie in words, to strengthen the images and make the message of the movie even clearer. The poetry is written by Øyvind Egeland.

Magnificent wild nature provides possibilities for reflection. The film is a result of thoughts and reflections that have come out of years spent in the mountains. Feeling insignificant and small in large nature is humbling and this humbleness we need to take with us in our lives.

A walk through Fidjadalen offers many experiences. There’s a rich bird life, and some plants that are not quite common. There are traces of beaver, and there are deer, although they are not easy to spot. There is trout if you want fishing. The wear on some stones along the path upwards shows that people have walked here for thousands of years. This is a cultural landscape in it’s best sense. The path up the Fidjadalen valley can be difficult to follow. It goes over the scree in the height along Månvannet before it continues at Huldrehaugane. Some believe it is easier to walk on the right side upwards along the Månvannet. This is possible if the water flow and the water level are low, but the river must then be crossed. It can be difficult to get through Fidjadalen early in the year because of ice and snow. The valley is also difficult to get down on skis - although some have done so. By extremely large water flow, it can be difficult and somewhat dangerous to pass the Fidjafossen waterfall.

The farm at Fed was known as a manor and they owned large areas of land. It is said that butter prices fell when the farmer from Fed came to town with his butter. It is also told that a son of the farmer was married to a hulder. Some of the wealth on the farm should come from her.

After each gale the farmers buy longer nails.

When Ragnar Axelsson was a boy, back in Iceland, he shot and killed a bird. He says he still feels bad about it. Yet for three decades he has followed the fortunes of Inuit hunters in Greenland, capturing on camera the last throes of a harpooned whale or a cornered polar bear. The chase for a bear can take days, he says, as men and dogs follow pawprints in subzero temperatures. “It gets to the stage where either the bear falls or they fall . . . which is why one feels in the last moments that they share a type of respect for each other.”

"A library card was the first thing that was mine, that I had ever owned,” says Nasima Razmyar. The daughter of a former Afghan diplomat, Razmyar arrived in Finland with her family in 1992 as a refugee fleeing political unrest. Unable to speak the language, with scant resources, and trying to make sense of the strange new city she found herself in, she was stunned to discover she was entitled to a library card that would grant her books – for free. Her appreciation of the privilege has not faded: “I still have that library card in my wallet today,” she says proudly.

Today, Razmyar is deputy mayor of Helsinki, and ready to champion the institution that has given her so much – starting with the construction of Oodi, the city’s new central library. She is not alone in her passion for libraries. “Finland is a country of readers,” declared the country’s UK ambassador Päivi Luostarinen recently, and it’s hard to argue with her. In 2016 the UN named Finland the world’s most literate nation, and Finns are among the world’s most enthusiastic users of public libraries – the country’s 5.5m million people borrow close to 68m books a year.

In recognition of that fact, at a time when libraries worldwide are facing budget cuts, a decline in users and closure, Finland is bucking the trend. According to local authority figures from 2016, the UK spends just £14.40 per head on libraries. By contrast, Finland spends £50.50 per inhabitant. While more than 478 libraries have closed in cities and towns across England, Wales and Scotland since 2010, Helsinki is spending €98m creating an enormous new one. Not content with merely building a library, the Finns have gone public with their passion: Mind-building, the Finnish pavilion at this year’s Venice architecture biennale, is a love letter to the nation’s literary landmarks.

Oodi – Ode in English – is more than a sober monument to civic pride. Commissioned as part of Finland’s celebration of a century of independence, the library is no mere book repository. “I think Finland could not have given a better gift to the people. It symbolises the significance of learning and education, which have been fundamental factors for Finland’s development and success,” says Razmyar.

Libraries are seen as the visible face of the Finnish belief in education, equality and good citizenship. “There’s strong belief in education for all,” says Hanna Harris, director of Archinfo Finland and Mind-building’s commissioner. “There is an appreciation of active citizenship – the idea that it is something that everyone is entitled to. Libraries embody that strongly,” she adds.