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On the edge of a cliff

A Call from the Wild
Regissør: Asgeir Helgestad
(Norge)





(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

The renowned Norwegian still and film photographer Asgeir Helgestad has been documenting wildlife in Norway and on Svalbard for over 25 years. In his new documentary, A Call from the Wild, he examines the interaction between rising temperatures and his home country's nature and wildlife from a climate change perspective. Based on older footage, he takes the audience on a fascinating journey into Norway's spectacular nature.

This time Helgestad is using himself as a mouthpiece for wild nature. I dare say that most people from so-called developed countries already know that we exploit nature, but to have it pointed out with solid documentation is a punch in the gut. Helgestad shows us a bird mountain full of puffins, gannets and gulls, birds that have used the cliff for thousands of years. The birds are dependent on the fish eating tiny plankton in the sea. But with climate change, the water has become warmer, so the food for fish, birds and whales eventually forces them to move north to colder waters.

How can we blame developing countries for not reusing plastic bottles and cleaning the ocean?

Cry for help

Helgestad is good at filming in all kinds of weather, and he works with equipment that can bring the audience into the smallest puffin hole and explore how a puffin chick grows up. Or let's watch the wild reindeer fight and mate, see the mountain from above and explore insects dancing nectar with a flower. Sometimes Helgestad is included in the framing, on the edge of the cliff, as when he saves a puffin chick from being caught in the nest. Knowing that a filmmaker is not supposed to change reality, he simply cannot let the bird die.

We see a large machine about to harvest the popular seaweed. Shortly afterwards, Helgestad aims the underwater camera at the bottom. It is a sad sight that reveals itself: Everything is torn down, and it looks like a war zone.

There is also a sad sight on the cliffs: Plastic and nylon nets in various colors that have caught dead birds hang from the fishing gear. The sea looks like a scrap heap. It is a terrible picture, and it makes me ask: How is it that Norway, as one of the world's richest and smartest countries, cannot find a way to deal with this challenge? How can we blame developing countries for not reusing plastic bottles and cleaning the ocean? We also blame them for cutting down too many trees, but Norway has reduced its original forests considerably. This has led to a loss of biological diversity. And despite the fact that the Storting has decided that only ten percent of the forest should be protected, as of today only around four percent is actually protected.

Helgestad is more cautious. He shows a large mountain full of windmills and asks: "Climate change requires action, but how can this destruction of nature be a sustainable solution? Are we ready to lose the mountains in exchange for electrifying oil platforms and supplying data centers with cheap energy?”

How is it that Norway, as one of the world's richest and smartest countries, cannot find a way to deal with the challenge of plastic pollution?

The film is a cry for help. It shows an enormous love for nature that is captured in exemplary beautiful scenes and settings from small insects to large musk oxen.

Extreme changes

I have been inspired to observe my own garden with new eyes. The kestrels still come to the bird box every year, but we have fewer insects, butterflies and swallows. Ten years ago there was a pair of hedgehogs every year. This year we found a dead hedgehog. Early in the morning there was a heron in front of our window – not scared, but probably sick. Climate change is a fact, and we must all react and change our own lives in a sustainable way.

It is not the first time Helgestad's film shows the results of climate change. In the movie Queen without a country (2012) he introduced us to the polar bear Frost and her two cubs in Svalbard. The film is not only about the giant animals and their lives, but also about the ecosystems and the extreme changes in an Arctic that is about to disappear. That film was sold to more than 20 countries.

Recently, Helgestad and his production company Artic Lights received a grant from the Norwegian Film Institute to make a new film about the polar bear Frost in Svalbard. We have every reason to expect another documentary film out of the ordinary – and another punch in the stomach from Helgestad.

 

The film was, among other things, shown at The International Wildlife Film Festival in Montana in the USA. Translated by editor.



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