Pathfinder [Ofelaš] ***** (1987, Mikkel Gaup, Ingvald Guttorm, Nils Utsi, Helgi Skúlason, Henrik H Buljo) – Classic Movie Review 7,755

Nils Gaup’s 1988 Pathfinder [Ofelaš] is a thrilling and hypnotic Norwegian adventure film, a mix of violent action and Lapp legend.

Writer-director Nils Gaup’s 1988 Pathfinder [Ofelaš] is a thrilling and hypnotic Norwegian adventure film, a mix of violent action and Lapp legend. It is the 1000 AD-set tale of a boy called Aigin (Mikkel Gaup, the director’s son) who alone escapes a horde of murdering savages, and is helped by villagers whose lives he unwittingly endangers. It is down to him to pit his wits against the savages.

There is a marvellous performance from the boy, the mountain scenery is breathtaking, and director Nils Gaup’s delight in telling a great yarn speeds it along at breakneck pace with pauses for strong emotional effect. It is a realistically achieved edge-of-seat thrill ride.

Pathfinder is an intense sensory experience: you can feel the cold, the danger, the fear, the excitement. It is nothing short of great. It is made in the Lapp language, Saami – a first – with subtitles. The American dubbed version spoils it a little. It was Oscar nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1988 Oscars (losing to Babette’s Feast).

Pathfinder is also known as Ofelaš (original title) and Veiviseren. Ofelaš means guide in the Saami language. The Norwegian title Veiviseren roughly translates as pathfinder, the English title.

It is based on an old Sami legend and was the first full-length film in Sami.

It was loosely remade as Pathfinder in 2007 with Karl Urban.

The film’s villain Tsjuderen med arret (played by Helgi Skúlason) does not say a word in the entire film.

Nils-Aslak Valkeapää plays  Siida-Isit, as well as writing the music, with Kjetil Bjerkestrand and Marius Müller.

The cast

The cast are Mikkel Gaup as Aigin, Sara Marit Gaup as Sahve, Nils Utsi as Raste, Anna Maria Blind as Varia, Ingvald Guttorm as Aigin’s Father, Ellen Anne Bulj as Aigin’s Mother, Inger Utsi as Aigin’s Sister, Henrik H Buljo as Dorakas, Nils-Aslak Valkeapää as Siida-Isit, Helgi Skúlason as a Tchude with scar, and Svein Scharffenberg as the Tchude chief.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7,755

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