A still from A New Kind of Wilderness by Silje Evensmo Jacobsen, an official selection of the World Documentary Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. Photo by Maria Gros Vatne.
A family living an idyllic life in the Norwegian countryside cherishes their freedom. When their world is turned upside down, they must deal with life in new ways. Silje Evensmo Jacobsen’s A New Kind of Wilderness is an intimate study of a family dealing with grief, stress, and upheaval. The film was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance Film Festival.
Nik and Maria have purposely chosen to live an isolated life in the Norwegian forest. The children are schooled by their parents. They are learning to love nature and they get to experience freedom in ways we must envy. The setting is beautiful and filled with life. There is a feeling of Eden about the family’s life. The people seem to be as much a part of this place as the trees, animals, and landscape.
Jacobsen began this film as a way of documenting the life Nik and Maria were creating. But when Maria died fairly quickly from cancer, the film had to pivot its focus. However, having already developed a bond with the family, she was able to give us a portrait of a family in the midst of change.
Nik tries to carry on with Maria’s concept of how she wanted her children to be raised. But alone on the farm, he doesn’t have enough time to do everything that needs to be done. His Norwegian is minimal (he’s from England), so it’s hard for him to school his children. He also doesn’t have the money needed to keep the farm. It is also hard for him to deal with the children’s grief while he is trying to deal with his own.
The eldest daughter, from Maria’s former marriage, returns to the city to live with her father. She has grief issues because she is also cut off from her siblings. In time, they are forced to move into the city, where they start school three days a week and continue with home schooling the other two days. Nik is especially isolated. His family, which would be an important support, is in England. Does he need to totally uproot his children’s lives by taking them to a different country?
Through all this, we see glimpses of their past lives, through Maria’s photography and blog entries. There are certainly contrasts to the life before cancer and now, but the loving bond the family shares is a constant. Although the family must leave the Eden that they had, this bond will be an important part of their survival in the wilderness of grief and relocation.
