Four Norwegian skateboarders ride alongside the crashing waves of the Lofoten Islands in Northbound in Norwegian, a skate film released last week by Turbin film. Karstein Kleppan, Henrik Lund, Hermann Stene and Didrick Galasso glide across the sandy coastlines of Northern Norway's Nordland county as if they were coated in freshly paved cement. In just under 10 minutes, the skaters experiment using creative natural obstacles, testing their street dexterity amongst the harsh terrain of the Arctic Circle.
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At the start of the film, a title card reads, "The skateboarding in this film is done on frozen sand and water only." In our conversation with director last year, following the film's Tribeca Film Festival appearance, Jørn Nyseth Ranum explained that he came up with the idea while he was surfing one cold winter day. When he got out of the water, he felt that the sand was rock solid, "It felt like concrete in a way." That's when he had the idea to try and make a film about skating on a frozen beach.
In addition to the thrilling skate footage, Nyseth Ranum captures beautiful imagery in 4K of the Norwegian countryside, a wintry landscape as beautiful as it is extreme. It's no surprise, then, that Northbound has garnered the attention of a number of festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival, the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.Watch the film in its entirety below:
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