Mikal Gaup Movies
- 1987
- NR
Norwegian director Nils Gaup used the landscape of Finland as his backdrop in Pathfinder. The story is set in 10th-century Lapland. Teen-aged Mikkel Gaup, after watching his family being slaughtered by the bloodthirsty Tchude tribe, takes refuge in a small, peaceful village. He tries to warn the residents of the cruelties of the Tchudes; as a result, half the villagers take to the hills, while the other half elect to stay and stand their ground. The Tchudes make short work of the villagers, then take Gaup prisoner. He pretends to agree to lead the Tchudes towards the other villagers, but is able to turn the tables before it's too late. Inspired by an ancient legend, Pathfinder is filmed in near-documentary fashion, bringing the past so vividly alive that the audience is tempted to look over its shoulder to see if Tchudes are poised to attack in the lobby of the theatre. Though nominated for a best foreign picture Oscar in 1987, the film was not given a general US release until 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mikal Gaup, Nils Utsi, (more)
- 1991
- PG
Neil Jordan's lyrical Irish romance takes place in the small seaside town of Bray (near Dublin) and concerns two teenage friends, Jimmy (Niall Byrne) and Rose (Lorraine Pilkington). They spend their days roaming the cobblestone streets and waterlogged piers. To while away the time, Rose and Jimmy make up stories about strangers on the street. One day, while watching people at the train station, a sophisticated and glamorous older woman, Renee Baker (Beverly D'Angelo), stands out so imposingly from the drab townsfolk that Jimmy and Rose decide to follow her, obsessed with knowing everything about her. They follow her to the beach and at last Renee speaks to them. When she looks at Jimmy, he's immediately smitten by this mysterious woman. Rose, who has feelings for Jimmy herself, decides to make him jealous by trying to attract a young lion tamer from a traveling circus. But Jimmy is completely attached to Renee and his desire leads him to fateful consequences. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beverly D'Angelo, Donal McCann, (more)
With Breaking The Waves, director Lars von Trier fashions an often disturbing tale of the singular power of love. Bess (the Oscar-nominated Emily Watson) is a naïve, borderline simple young woman who lives in a Scottish coastal town ruled by the religious doctrine of its council of elders. Recovering from a mental breakdown caused by the death of her brother, Bess marries a rough yet compassionate and attentive oil rig worker named Jan (Stellan Skarsgård). For a brief time, the couple enjoys peaceful wedded bliss, with the worldly Jan introducing Bess to the mysteries of sex. Jan must soon return to his job on the rig, however, where he is paralyzed from the neck down in a freak accident. Bess' emotional trauma over Jan's injury turns into obsession as she prays to God for his recovery and offers to do anything to have her husband back whole. Jan, constantly medicated and profoundly depressed, asks Bess to have sex with other men and tell him about it, thinking this will allow her to return to a normal life. Bess, on the other hand, sees it as an expression of her devotion to Jan that even God won't be able to ignore. Bess' resultant downward spiral leads to a finale of both tragedy and spirituality. Breaking the Waves is widely regarded as one of the most distinctive European movies of the 1990s, marking von Trier's movement toward his influential Dogma 95 school of filmmaking, which emphasizes realistic situations of contemporary life, filmed without background music and with a hand-held, restlessly moving camera. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, (more)
- 1997
American independent filmmaker Rob Tregenza, who includes Jean-Luc Godard among his admirers, directed this deliberately paced, minimalist drama about Jean Hammett (Frederic Pierrot), a French artist who has been committed to a mental institution in the United States. One of the female inmates becomes infatuated with him as the patients react with the nuns who run the hospital and attempt to interact despite the emotional distance between them. Tregenza, who also wrote, produced, and photographed Inside/Out, shot the film in the widescreen CinemaScope format to better visually illustrate the separation of the characters. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2006
A drug-addled elephant is on the run from people who either want to help him or kill him in this dark computer-animated comedy that is decidedly not for children. Jimmy is a performing elephant who travels with a third-rate Russian circus run by ringmaster Stromowski (voice of Jim Broadbent). Jimmy's minder is a sleazy American expatriate, Roy Arnie (voice of Woody Harrelson), who keeps the nervous beast pacified with regular doses of heroin. Roy has also hidden a large stash of the drug under Jimmy's skin, but Roy's decided he wants out of circus life and plans to sell the dope and go his own way. However, in order to do that he has to put Jimmy out of his misery, and he recruits three stoner buddies -- Odd (voice of Simon Pegg), Gaz (voice of Phil Daniels) and Flea (voice of Jim Simpson) -- to help whack the elephant. However, it seems Roy is also in debt to some gangsters (voices of Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and Steve Pemberton) who happen to know that he's hidden the drugs in the elephant, and they're aiming to grab Jimmy before Roy and his pals can. As it happens, they're both beaten to the punch by a group of dim-witted animal rights activists led by Marius (voice of Kyle MacLachlan), who liberate Jimmy and the other circus animals, not realizing they've just sent a junkie pachyderm into the wilds as it's going cold turkey, with only a friendly moose for help. Free Jimmy also features the voice talents of Samantha Morton, Emilla Fox and Lisa Maxwell. Though it was produced in Norway, two versions exist, one with a mostly English-cast (referenced above) and one with a mostly Norwegian cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jan Saelid, Woody Harrelson, (more)
- 2008
Norwegian director Nils Gaup takes the helm for this sweeping Nordic epic tracing the struggle of the indigenous Sami people against the Swedish exploiters who reap the profits of their misery and desperation. Swedish entrepreneur Ruth (Mikael Persbrandt) is the proprietor of a Kautokeino trading post that also doubles as a popular pub. It's one of the few places that the semi-nomadic Sami can go to purchase essential living supplies and knock back a few drinks. The situation gets complicated when alcoholism begins to run rampant among the Sami men, the reindeer herds are neglected, and the women prove incapable of taking on the responsibility due to their depleted numbers. Enraged by her people's indifference and disturbed by her husband Mathis (Aslat Mahtte Gaup)' constant state of drunkenness, obstinate Sami Elen (Anni-Kristiina Juuso) determines to invoke a positive change by encouraging her husband and neighbors to purchase their supplies from the neighboring town of Karesuando. Once there, the group is taken by the fire and brimstone sermons of charismatic preacher Laestadius (Michael Nyqvist), who condemns the sins of alcohol and vice. Their eyes suddenly opened, Mathis vows to put down the bottle and Elen begins preaching Laestadius' word around Kautokeino. As a result, Ruth's business suffers and a new pastor arrives in town to quell the dissent. This development doesn't sit too well with the outspoken Elen, who gathers the rest of the Sami and leads the march to Ruth's to settle the matter once and for all. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anni-Kristiina Juuso, Mikal Gaup, (more)
