Northern Lights

Rob Nilsson

United States

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Synopsis

The bitter-sweet story of young lovers caught up in a political struggle waged by farmers against the grain trade, banks and railroads evoking the austere beauty of the Northern plains. Winner of the Camera D'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1979.

REVIEW

Set in the unforgiving wintry world of North Dakota around 1915, "Northern Lights" evokes a forgotten and moving chapter in America's labor history. Framed by present-day reminiscences of hale 94-year-old Hal Martinson, the film alternately recalls and recreates a time when homesteaders joined together and took action against lawless and selfish powers-that-be. Martinson especially remembers the charismatic labor organizer Ray Sorenson.   Filmmakers John Hanson and Rob Nilsson seamlessly direct a mix of professional actors with local non-professionals in a cinematic approach that crosses fictionalized history with suggestions of documentary. With unpretentious and loving attention to detail, "Northern Lights" shows how this hardworking community of Scandinavian immigrant farmers takes on the railroads and quasi-corporate granaries that threatened to divorce them from their land and livelihood, as well as ruthless politicians and far-away banks seemingly dead-set upon foreclosure. Under Sorenson's leadership the farmers form a union called the Nonpartisan League, envision starting a cooperative, and even becoming shareholders in a state-owned bank. In a gritty, remarkably immediate style, the film unveils the stern challenges these farmers face, both geographically and politically, and their valiant efforts at success. Painfully beautiful black-and-white photography captures an icily hostile yet dramatic landscape to which the events and players are irretrievably attached.   Specific passages are captured with haunting reality: from a brutal harvest in a bitter snowstorm to drafty corners where brave souls hatch plans. Such imagery is conveyed so realistically it is as if the filmmakers snuck a camera into the past. "Northern Lights" graphically describes an aspect of our labor history that   remains rousing and stunningly pertinent.

-Jeffrey Gorney