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Director Silje Evensmo Jacobsen's documentary A New Kind of Wilderness won the 2024 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema – Documentary and will be screening at the Adelaide Film Festival on Saturday 26 October and Tuesday 29 October.
This serene and moving film follows a young family in the midst of transition. Parents Maria and Nik are raising their four children on a remote farm in Norway, teaching them a self-sustainable way of life and learning how to live alongside the land they call home. With Maria's photography helping provide a steady income for the family, all seems to be moving along comfortably, that is, until Maria passes away leaving Nik to raise their children. With no means of financially supporting the family, Nik is faced with the difficult decision of shifting his family to a new home and possibly moving away from Norway back to his home country of England where he has stronger familial support.
While this sounds like a heavy experience, Silje reflects on Maria's life perspective, her photos, and her journal writings which can be found on her blog, and in that process she manages to transform A New Kind of Wilderness into a beautiful, enriching, life affirming film that will leave you with a renewed perspective on family, nature, and the lives that we live.
In the following interview, Silje talks about how she shot A New Kind of Wilderness and the relationships that she had with the family on and off camera, while also reflecting on the relationship that the film will have with audiences around the globe.
A New Kind of Wilderness screens at the Adelaide Film Festival on Saturday 26 October and Tuesday 29 October. Tickets are available here.