Based on an iconic book which appeared in the early sixties, by Norwegian national treasure Tarjei Vesaas, Per Blom's film shows how the swiftly developing relationship between two recently met pre-adolescent girls, Siss (a local girl) and the more introvert Unn (a newcomer) culminates in their deciding, in Unn's bedroom and at her suggestion, to undress in the spirit of mutual curiosity. Unn wants to know if she looks odd in some way, and confesses she harbours a secret so grave that she may be damned, but Siss cannot discern how Unn is particularly unusual. As time creaks by, the girls become uncomfortable at their own nudity and the scene ends in awkwardness. Then we see Siss quickly running home through the darkness.
The next day, to postpone her own inevitable embarrassment, Siss avoids meeting Unn at school by going off alone to look at a frozen waterfall. She wanders awestruck around the massive icy structure, passing from one great vaulted chamber to the next, but at length gets lost inside and falls victim to the numbing cold. Finally, she dies of hypothermia, her new friend's name on her lips at the end. Search parties seek the lost girl in vain on the snow-covered hills into the darkness, while Unn seems perplexed then struck dumb by the unexplained disappearance of Siss. We see her alone in the school yard and, in a scene of calculated longeur, lying naked in the bath. The fate of Siss, while only an indirect consequence of the episode between the girls, leads to Unn being emotionally isolated in a way that parallels Siss's loneliness on first arriving in the district.
I saw this film on British TV soon after its release in the late eighties, when Blom was being feted internationally. Twenty four years had elapsed since the book's publication and the very unworldliness ('innocence' is perhaps too charged a word) at the centre of the story was already out of step with the cynical knowingness then hardening into political correctness here in the UK. It was a bold decision to show it then outside of art house cinemas, I imagine, and a TV showing today would seem highly unlikely as the key scene, a commonplace in the lives of many children and hardly shocking in itself, would seem unpalatable in today's more censorious climate.
A touching, poignant movie in which subtitles are often superfluous, but with much more to say for itself than this brief synopsis can convey. Well worth a look if you ever get the chance.
The next day, to postpone her own inevitable embarrassment, Siss avoids meeting Unn at school by going off alone to look at a frozen waterfall. She wanders awestruck around the massive icy structure, passing from one great vaulted chamber to the next, but at length gets lost inside and falls victim to the numbing cold. Finally, she dies of hypothermia, her new friend's name on her lips at the end. Search parties seek the lost girl in vain on the snow-covered hills into the darkness, while Unn seems perplexed then struck dumb by the unexplained disappearance of Siss. We see her alone in the school yard and, in a scene of calculated longeur, lying naked in the bath. The fate of Siss, while only an indirect consequence of the episode between the girls, leads to Unn being emotionally isolated in a way that parallels Siss's loneliness on first arriving in the district.
I saw this film on British TV soon after its release in the late eighties, when Blom was being feted internationally. Twenty four years had elapsed since the book's publication and the very unworldliness ('innocence' is perhaps too charged a word) at the centre of the story was already out of step with the cynical knowingness then hardening into political correctness here in the UK. It was a bold decision to show it then outside of art house cinemas, I imagine, and a TV showing today would seem highly unlikely as the key scene, a commonplace in the lives of many children and hardly shocking in itself, would seem unpalatable in today's more censorious climate.
A touching, poignant movie in which subtitles are often superfluous, but with much more to say for itself than this brief synopsis can convey. Well worth a look if you ever get the chance.