Word: berlevåg
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...fishing port of Berlevag is about as far as you can get from anywhere, perching on the Barents Sea above the Arctic Circle in Finnmark, Norway's northernmost county. Despite the remote location and frozen terrain, Berlev?g has something to warm hearts across much of Europe - a 30-man amateur choral ensemble starring in a poignant and quirky film called Heftig & Begeistret, or Cool & Crazy...
Cool & Crazy, which has plucked the heartstrings of the Nordic countries and arrived to praise in Britain, is to open in the coming weeks in France, Germany and elsewhere. But hold on a minute. A documentary about a year in the life of the Berlev?g Male Choir? In Norwegian, with subtitles? Wouldn't watching icicles form be more interesting? Actually, no. This charming feature-length film by the Norwegian director Knut Erik Jensen is so full of warmth, humor, sensitivity, beauty, social commentary and stirring music that it will melt any negative preconceptions...
...film begins in a distinctly un-Latin blizzard in Berlev?g, home to some 1,200 souls. On a headland facing the North Pole, the hardy ensemble solemnly belts out a robust ode to the forces of nature as icicles form on their whiskers. "Finnmark lad, you found your grave/Out on the awesome wave ..." Their songs are interspersed, as the seasons change, with glimpses into individual lives. The men - among them an agnostic church organist, a reformed drug addict and a bellicose communist - are kindly and ornery, childlike and cynical, flirty and stern. The camera lingers over small details...
...Jensen, the work was an affair of the heart from his very first encounter with the Berlev?g Male Choir: "As I looked at them, with their faces marked by tough lives in the Arctic, giving themselves over to the poetry of these simple songs, I was very touched. The whole experience went straight to my heart and I felt tears in my eyes." So, too, will many movie-goers who don't understand a word of Norwegian...
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