Epic documentary
inspires wanderlust
“There's a force that flows from nature. I can just stand still and feel my batteries being recharged.”
Margreth Olin, director
“My new film Songs of Earth is a declaration of love to both nature and my father.”
“If we are to care sufficiently about anything, we need to re-establish a deep connection with nature, to the people and animals around us.”
According to filmmaker Margreth Olin, we can find everything we need to live a good life in nature. One of the main goals behind her new nature documentary Songs of Earth is to get more people to experience and reconnect with the nature.
In this epic nature documentary, we literally follow in the footsteps of Olin's 84-year-old father, as he hikes during all four seasons, through raw and magnificent meditative landscapes in the mighty Oldedalen valley in Nordfjord in Western Norway.
“I made the film because I want even more people to go out into nature and re-establish a deep contact with nature and all the living things around us. In this modern, digital world, in which most of us live in big cities all our lives, we have become very disconnected and distanced from it,” says Olin.
The film had its world premiere at the CPH:DOX film festival in Copenhagen in March 2023, which described it as: " … a grand and existential journey with the filmmaker's parents as her human yardstick [ …] Margreth Olin has created a striking cinematic work about life, death, nature; about simply being present in the world. "
“The film is a declaration of love to both nature and my father, but also to my mother and my family, and to the animals and all the tiny, amazing insects that live in nature,” she says.
What you love, you care about
But the backdrop to the film, which should definitely be seen in theatres, is a sombre one. Olin's project was to make a film about the climate crisis that threatens us, but which is told on nature's terms.
“This is my most personal film to date. The film addresses the eternal perspective of nature and human transience, but also the grief of discovering that the reason why the waterfalls are cascading more beautifully than ever is that the glaciers are melting, that nature is changing, and that there is so much that is about to be lost,” says Olin.
The drama of nature
When the coronavirus pandemic shut down the country, she returned home to her parents and began filming their everyday lives in the dramatic Oldedalen valley, which is also a popular tourist destination. Her father is always out hiking, as soon as the opportunity arises.
It's a place where entire mountainsides suddenly release their fury, razing roads and farms and wiping out entire families through landslides and avalanches, but also where your senses are allowed to open wide and free, where eagles soar among drifting clouds and sky-high peaks.
“It's quite unique to come from a place where you see how the primordial forces of nature have shaped the incredible landscape of Western Norway, how the masses of water and glaciers have smoothed the mountains for thousands of years, and how nature has drawn eye-catching graphic drawings in the rock. It's like seeing the blood vessels and nerves of the earth itself,” she says.
The power of nature
But there's also something beyond what we can see and hear, that we can only sense. A force that fills us with energy, she believes.
“I literally feel my batteries charging when I'm out in nature,” continues the Western Norwegian local, who grew up in Stranda, a nearby fjord village.
The landscapes still take her breath away.
“During filming, we accompanied a glacier guide inside a blue ice cave in the middle of winter. It's one of the top five experiences of my life! I've never been to such a beautiful place. We had to crawl inside a narrow cylinder of ice. Inside the cave, we experienced a kind of 3D effect – we could see far inside the bluish ice. We were there for hours filming,” she says.
See Margreth Olin's talk at TEDxArendal on how she spent time in nature to regain control of her own life and how the experience inspired her latest documentary.
Nature's own soundtrack
Nature also sparks the imagination.
“My dad has taken me on hikes my whole life. He taught me to see wizards and creatures in the mountain walls, and to listen. One day as we were sitting by the Briksdalsbreen glacier, I suddenly heard an entire orchestra from inside the glacier in my head. It was the wind singing through the crevasses,” says Olin.
Nature's own sounds also play a big role in the film. During the recording, the crew spent a lot of time capturing nature's own melodies – and creating an entire natural symphony out of them, which was interpreted and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra.
“Among other things, we lowered microphones down into the crevasses of the glacier and caught the sounds of how the smooth round rocks clatter against each other in the rapid river current,” says Olin.
The film is both meditative and magnificent, and its powerful drone images show how incredibly small we humans are in the massive nature, something which can both have a strong therapeutic effect and a healing effect on us,” says Olin.
Enjoying Frilutftsliv
Being out in nature a lot, and cultivating the great outdoors, is also deeply rooted in the Norwegian identity.
“Everything we need to live good lives is found in nature. That's what being active outdoors is all about. Just listen to the word, friluftsliv, literally “free-air life”: There is no life without air, and when we are outside, we experience inner freedom,” says the filmmaker, who also associates the word with “bubbling joy”.
“It's about experiencing the value of spending time outdoors, feeling a sense of mastery through going on hikes, sleeping outside, catching your own food in the wild, and experiencing the wonder of sensing the power of nature. Because nature can give us physical and mental strength. Nature experiences and contact with animals can be pure therapy and can in fact also remedy trauma and empower people with impaired cognitive ability,” according to Olin.
Varied nature
If there is one thing Norway has a great deal of, it's nature.
“We have a very long country that is beautiful in contrasting ways, from the gentle southern coast to the deep inland forests and the more dramatic nature in Western Norway, where I come from. Here, you can experience Jostedalsbreen, Europe's largest inland glacier, despite the fact that due to climate change, the glacier arms in many places have now become shorter and hang higher up in the valleys, something which you can see clearly in the film,” she says.
The melting of the Jostedalsbreen glacier is another serious backdrop to the film.
“It's like an enormously large animal straddling the mountains, with white tentacles reaching out into the valleys, that rages and crashes and grows and melts, breathes and moves, and forms landscapes and shapes its surroundings,” says Olin.
The art of not going too fast
She also believes that as a tourist, you should be open to visiting places that not everyone else visits.
“There are a lot of natural gems that haven't been discovered, and you don't have to go where everyone else goes. We must manage nature responsibly,” she says. She is also a proponent of the art of walking a little slowly when you are out hiking, and engaging all of your senses.
“A lot of people use nature for working out, and that can certainly be nice. But my dad taught me the value of not walking so fast that one forgets to look around, of keeping a calm and even pace, without wearing oneself out, and of being in and taking in everything around oneself. It's about observing the surroundings with both a “macro lens” and a wide-angle perspective, with wonder, just as I do in the film. Many people who have seen the film have afterwards said things like “I hike way too fast”, “I always wear headphones”, and " I'm now going to start hiking at a slower pace and try to listen to nature in a different way,” says Olin.
Live the outdoor life
Nature makes us happier!
Let the kids run free!
Norway is a natural playground for kids of all ages.
Wonderful outdoor activities
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