Having been hiking in the Scottish Highlands earlier this year, we were eager to see the The North. It’s a story of two men who endeavour to hike the West Highland Way (151km) and the Cape Wrath Trail (378km).
Before I start, I must declare that we are long distance hikers that love hiking movies like The Salt Path, The Way and Wild. So, we are the target market for the film.
We meet Chris (Bart Harder) and Lluis (Carles Pulido), close friends ten years prior who decide to one day hike the 600kms. It starts as a physical challenge but with all long-distance hiking, becomes a mental and emotional one.
But these men are not great in the communicating stakes. So much emotion just hangs in the air.
The movie’s cinematography spectacularly highlights the extreme beauty of the Scottish Highlands. Interestingly, some individual scenes were held like a still photo for over ten seconds, adding more drama.
With no music until the credits, the movie was a true sensory experience. The only sounds were howling wind, rain bucketing, crashing waves, seagulls and the occasional brief conversation. This combination of sight and sound created a sense of place and vividly showed the boys’ physical ordeal. I was puffing and panting with them.
I felt I was hiking alongside the boys in real life. At the same time, I was frustrated by the lack of communication between the two friends.
It is a long movie at 131mintues, but I wasn’t ever bored.
Having said that, if hiking is not your thing, you might find movie hard going. The movie is slow paced, to emulate the walking pace and realism of how time flows in nature.
I will give the film 4 stars but understand how it might be a 1 star for others.
The North is showing as part of the British Film Festival.