North Calotte is the name given in Scandinavia to the harsh, barren, but also fascinating landscape at the very edge of Europe: the border region of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. This is where the once nomadic Sámi people settled with their herds of reindeer. Peter Nestler’s Die Nordkalotte [The North Calotte] is a documentary about the history, traditions, and understanding of nature of the Sámi. Over centuries, they have learned to adapt their needs to the climatic conditions of the Arctic Circle. Today, the Sámi are a minority in their own country, with many working in modern professions and living in cities, while the natural resources of the region are increasingly being lost. Dams have been built to generate electricity, forests cleared without hesitation, and huge excavators rummage through the earth for ore and nickel, turning everything upside down. Nestler criticizes industrial society that is covering the most remote regions with large-scale projects and is sacrificing the ecological balance for the sake of profit. But that’s not all: when the Chernobyl reactor burst in April 1986, its nuclear toxic loads also reached the far north. As in many of his films, Nestler also uncovers traces of the Second World War here. He tells the story of a successful escape from the Germans. At the end, Die Nordkalotte once again takes us back to the way the Sámi deal with nature, which is not aimed at subjugating it but at achieving a spiritual harmony between humans and creation.
Followed by an audience discussion with Tobias Holzlehner (MLU Halle-Wittenberg) and Judith Miggelbrink (TU Dresden), moderated by Florian Wüst.