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SONGS OF EARTH

by Margreth Olin

SYNOPSIS

The mountainous landscapes of Norway provide the monumental backdrop for the cinematic nature experience of the year. A magnificent, existential journey with the filmmaker’s parents as its human yardstick, and with the primordial forces of the earth looming in the bedrock.

It does not get much bigger than ‘Songs of Earth’. Margreth Olin has created a stunning, cinematic work about life, death, nature and about simply being present in the world. With her native Norway’s dizzyingly beautiful mountain landscapes as its monumental backdrop, Olin embarks on an existential journey with her own ageing parents as the human yardstick out in the vast expanses. Here, their family has always lived side by side with nature. Even when the earth’s primordial forces have shown their most merciless side. Her parents’ love and lifelong loyalty bear quiet witness to how surroundings and inner space resonate with each other. But not even the most rock-solid mountain is unchanging – and certainly not in times like ours. The level of detail in Olin’s lyrical and visionary poem to her homeland is almost beyond anything seen on the big screen. And that is most definitely where ‘Songs of Earth’ should be experienced.

DETAILS

90 mins

2023

Norway

Norwegian

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TRAILER

CREDITS

Director: Margreth Olin

Executive Producers: Wim Wenders, Liv Ullmann

Composer: Rebekka Karijord

Editor: Michal Leszczylowski

Cinematographer: Lars Erlend Tubaas Oymo

Sound Designer: Tormod Ringnes

BIOGRAPHY

DIRECTOR - MARGRETH OLIN

Margreth Olin (1970) is a director and producer with a large cinema audience in Norway. She has made 13 films, which have received critical acclaim, participated at numerous festivals abroad, and won several Norwegian and international awards. Margreth has managed to catalyze important dialogues with the topics her films shed light on. She has personally received 26 honorary awards for her commitment and focus on human rights. Her credits include In The House of Angels (Yamagata 1999) My Body (Tribeca 2002), EFA-nominated Raw Youth (2004), The Angel (TIFF 2010), Nowhere Home (IDFA 2012), Cathedrals of Culture, The Oslo Opera House (Berlinale 2013). Olin was one of 6 directors in Wim Wenders series Cathedrals of Culture, among Wim Wenders and Robert Redford. Her film Doing Good (2016) is the second highest grossing documentary ever in Norway. Her last film Self Portrait (DOC NYC 2020) won seven awards internationally. Olin is one of the recipients of the 2022 Chicken & Egg Award. She will be awarded the Anders Jahre Culture Award 2022 together with Joachim Trier, Deeyah Khan and Nils Gaup, which is Norway’s biggest honor for outstanding cultural effort.

SELECT FESTIVALS

CPH:DOX 2023〡KRAKOW FILM FESTIVAL 2023 - OPENING NIGHT FILM〡TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2023〡DOKUFEST 2023〡THESSALONIKI 2024

PRESS

"Meditative and personal"
- Variety

"Songs of Earth is an extraordinary documentary that has mesmerized us and will surely delight anyone who comes to experience it on the big screen."
- Krzysztof Gierat, Director, Krakow Film Festival

“An arresting study of this particularly photogenic corner of Norway which repays a big-screen viewing”
- Screen Daily

“These stories are accompanied by mesmerizing and curious camerawork straight out of the BBC Natural History mould.”
- Business Doc Europe

♥♥♥♥♥
- Politiken

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