Drømmeland review – hermit and his smartphone in the Norwegian wilderness – The Guardian
Having resolved to extricate himself from the chains of civilisation, Nils Leidal has taken solitary refuge among the many mountains of Norway. Whereas his mainly furnished shed and day by day rituals of scavenging and ice baths hark again to an easier lifestyle, the sixtysomething can also be glued to his internet-connected smartphone. The paradox is beguiling: how does one preserve a philosophy of self-sufficiency whereas concurrently broadcasting his existence on-line?
Unfocused in its construction, Joost van der Wiel’s muddled documentary grapples with these fascinating contradictions on a superficial degree. Other than Nils’ obscure mistrust of the federal government, as evidenced in a video during which he burns his passport, the movie gives little details about his background or the explanations behind his self-imposed exile. Punctuated by nondescript drone photographs of the attractive panorama, Drømmeland is generally preoccupied with Nils’ extra eccentric behaviour, like his rueful moaning to a lover on the telephone, or his behavior of looking within the nude. Haphazardly edited with little consideration for his way of thinking, these sequences come off as voyeuristic or plain unusual.
In stark distinction to Lizzie MacKenzie’s affecting The Hermit of Treig, which portrayed the lifetime of a recluse with vivid intimacy, Drømmeland gawks at its topic as an alternative of meaningfully connecting together with his uncommon actuality. Essentially the most dynamic confrontation happens when cops knock on Nils’ door to inquire in regards to the demise of his beloved horse, a reminder of the far-reaching energy of state surveillance. These moments of curiosity, nevertheless, are few and much between; Drømmeland simply doesn’t cohere right into a perceptive have a look at the dilemmas that include retreating from fashionable society.
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