NORTHERN DRIFT

Reporting from the future, an Arctic exploration around an undefined border turns into a philosophical investigation of mankind and its environment.

Assembled from personal experiences, collected testimonies and local stories, the film presents a subjective portrait of the contentious Norwegian-Russian borderland, one of hte world’s last frontiers. Home to the indigenous Sami, one of hte last places to be “colonoised" it is a region where palpable climate shifts raise dreams of new economic prosperity and where remnants of past wars set the stage for new adversities.

For centuries and to countless explorers, the region formed the boundary to unattainable and imagined territories. While it underwent rapid industrial development from the the early 20th century, it is not only a region whose landscape still bears visible traces of the conflicts of the last century, but also one that has come to play a key role in the current Northward expansion fueled by the sense that climate change will make the north an untapped economic goldmine. Resulting from long-term research conducted in the shadow of the protocols and restrictions around the political border, Northern Drift takes the form of an investigation whose motive remains concealed.

The film is at once travelogue, anthropological document and retro-futuristic sci-fi, blending these tropes into a re-imagined geography through a fragmented and subjective exploration of a labyrinthine zone where geopolitical interests collide.

Northern Drift is the final instalment in a multi-year research on the current transformation of the Arctic. It is part of a series of works dealing with transitional environments; places that are undergoing fundamental shifts - ecologically, politically and culturally.