Nine Lives

1943, German-occupied northern Norway. The sabotage operation Jan Baalsrud is part of is betrayed before it begins, and he is the only man of the party left alive. What follows is two months in the mountains, in the snow and in coastal villages, working his way towards the Swedish border. Snow blindness, frostbite, hunger; in a barn he cuts off his own frozen toes with a knife. Arne Skouen does not build it as a heroic epic but as an endurance test. What actually carries Baalsrud is the villagers who help him without ever giving their names and the Sami families who move him across the border by reindeer. It was nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign language film.