A new documentary explores whether making fire and driving dog sleds in freezing Arctic temperatures can alleviate young peoples’ modern anxieties.
Norway boasts 85 “folk high schools” with some 7,000 annual matriculants, whose fees are typically covered in part by government grants. As Folktales demonstrates, there are no exams at these schools, but the teenagers are tested nonetheless: Struggling to keep warm in below-zero temperatures Fahrenheit, one student is told by a teacher that to let him use their fire would mean “we wouldn’t be helping you” (he eventually succeeds).
One graduate opts to return to the wild after encountering frustrations upon her return home, suggesting the line between “character-building adventures and escapism” is a fine one, The Guardian wrote.