Let the River Flow

Ole Giaever's 2023 Norwegian film is set in 1979. Ester, a young teacher, hides her Sami identity to avoid racism; when she is drawn into the demonstrations against the dam project at Alta she has to face the shame she has carried for years. The film does not build the protest as a heroic narrative. Ester's decision is personal rather than ideological, and her relationship with her family, her colleagues and her own past changes at every step. The real subject is how shame is learned. The Alta dam struggle was the event through which Norwegian state policy towards the Sami was first widely argued. Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen appears on screen for the first time and largely carries the role herself; the film won the audience award and the critics' prize at Gothenburg. Who it's for: those interested in Nordic cinema and indigenous rights struggles. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a historical account of the events; the film keeps the struggle at the scale of one person.