Pathfinder

Pathfinder (original title Ofelaš), directed by Nils Gaup, is the first feature film shot entirely in Northern Sami, based on an ancient legend passed down through generations of the Sami people; set around the year 1000 in Finnmark, it follows young Aigin, whose family is massacred by Chude raiders, as he flees across the snow on a single ski. The director's nephew Mikkel Gaup played the lead in his acting debut. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1988 Academy Awards, the first Norwegian feature to be nominated since 1957's Nine Lives. Both the cast and crew were predominantly drawn from the Sami people. Who it's for: anyone curious about the first feature film shot entirely in a Sami language, which brought Norway its first Oscar nomination in thirty years, an adventurous chase film. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a modern, urban story, since this is based on a legend set a thousand years ago.