Something to watch tonight: Thursday 4 December
Long Way North (Chayé, 2015)
Back in July 2017, while I was making one of my regular substitute appearances on RNZ At the Movies, I said this about Long Way Home:
I would expect the film will eventually be like so many others – a pleasant surprise, tucked away in the far corners of some streaming service or other, so – if you do stumble across it, you might be pleasantly surprised.
And now that time has come!
I also said:
… if school holiday fare is what you are after – and you don’t want to feed your kids the high fructose corn syrup of Despicable Me 3 – you could seek out the hearty animated goodness of the French/Danish co-production Long Way North. Your kids will hate you for it, but you can sleep a little easier knowing that for an hour and a half you aren’t rotting their teeth.
The setting is St Petersburg in 1882. In one of great homes by the river, teenage Sasha is showing off the new scientific library that’s about to opened by the Tsar’s nephew. It’s named after her grandfather, the great explorer Oloukine – the man who discovered the north-west passage and a national hero. He is missing presumed dead after an expedition to the North Pole and the Tsar has posted a reward for anyone who can find him – not to mention the very expensive ship he was sailing.
In the library, Sasha finds a clue that suggests all the searchers had been looking in the wrong place and that night at the celebration ball, when she tries to persuade the important politician responsible for naming the library she insults him and her family loses the honour.
But young Sasha is not easily thwarted. She runs away from home, takes a train to Norway and tries to buy passage to the Arctic Circle. The hard-bitten Scandinavian sailors take her for a ride instead, leaving her with nothing but her clue from the library and a job in the local pub - the White Bear.
Because of her stubbornness, resourcefulness and a very expensive pair of earrings, Sasha persuades the captain of the Norge to search for Granddad. What an adventure!
Just as they find evidence that they are in the right track, icebergs sink the Norge and they have no choice but to soldier on even though most of the crew think it’s a pointless journey. And that’s before the polar bears turn up.
Long Way North won the audience choice award at the Annecy Animation Film Festival in 2015 and you can see why. It looks like a gorgeous picture book, very two-dimensional with flat panes of colour as if each frame was from a painting by numbers kit. There aren’t many frames either - action is a little jerky rather than the super-smooth Hollywood product. I found the look of the film quite endearing and quite peaceful. It feels handmade. The St Petersburg cityscapes especially are quite beautiful.
Also reviewed in that 19 July 2017 ATM show: The Journey (Timothy Spall as Rev. Ian Paisley and Colm Meaney as the IRA’s Martin McGuinness try and negotiate a Good Friday agreement) and War for the Planet of the Apes.
Where to watch Long Way North
Aotearoa: Streaming on Māori+ (free with ads)
Australia: Digital rental
Canada: Digital rental
India: Not currently available
Ireland: Digital rental
USA: Streaming on Prime Video or Fubo (paid subscriptions) or The Roku Channel or ShoutTV (free with ads)
UK: Digital rental