The North is a meditation on how nature shakes us awake, forces truth, and reconnects us. Showing now at the Russell Hobbs British Film Festival, it’s a film of surprising power that lets the vast Scottish Highlands take the lead.
With subtle, unobtrusive direction, director Bart Schrijver invites us into the stunning landscape of the Highlands and the interior world of his characters. Shot on the West Highland Way and Cape Wrath Trail, the film follows two best friends, Chris and Lluis, as they reconnect on the 600-kilometre journey.
Faced with the immensity of the untouched landscape, there’s nowhere left to hide from themselves.
The men are in their 30s and navigating different paths. Chris (Bart Harder), distracted by life back home, wants to stick to the hiking plan. Lluis (Carles Pulido), a creative feeling lost in life, craves to go off-grid and lose himself in the adventure. The Highlands offer silence and solitude, but along with it, some tough love as their own truths bubble to the surface.
Obviously a lover of the outdoors, Schrijver’s first film, Human Nature, follows a woman’s solo journey through the Arctic region of Norway. He continues the theme with The North, creating a visceral immersion in the power of nature.
Nature leads early on with sweeping landscapes and amplified rain and wind pulling you into the film’s world. Shrijver wants us to breathe, observe and get curious. There are long tracking shots and plenty of quiet moments. The actors are not front and centre; the landscape is.
The director took these guys on a real hiking journey, where they dealt with everything in real time. We get it all, the midges, the wind and rain, the mountains, and the isolation. It’s documentary-style mixed with method, but follows a narrative that feels organic.
The North brings to mind films like Sean Penn’s Into the Wild or the documentary Touching the Void. Stories that show how nature confronts us, roughs us up, but also heals and transforms.
The Highlands are wild, unpredictable and unforgiving. Schrijver, who also wrote the film, leans into the wildness, willing to abandon his script when needed.
The tiny crew of six took the entire journey with the actors, sleeping in tents and battling with the elements. Plans were abandoned, such as when midges decide to hijack a dialogue scene. The organic, improvised approach helps us feel like we’re taking the journey with the actors.
Naturally, the cinematography is a defining aspect of the film. What works so well is the way Director of Photography, Twan Peters, allows the landscape and the characters to guide the visuals.
Long tracking shots and long-held takes with no dialogue gradually invite us beyond the surface. It feels like a kind of exercise in mindfulness.
The sound design is distinctive and serves to build the emotional story. We feel like we’re there, the downpour drenching us, the waves overcoming us.
At times, the ultra-realism feels tedious. But Fraser Allan’s sound, together with Peters’ cinematography, serves to reveal the harsh beauty of the landscape and take us deeper into the characters’ inner lives. I don’t think I’ve seen a film that uses sound this powerfully.
The performances feel almost like non-acting, with gentle direction giving the actors space to unravel. Pulido beautifully plays a man struggling with his place in the world and desperate to lose himself in the void of nature.
Both actors have heartbreaking, private moments when everything comes to the surface. The emotional overflow is palpable and powerfully relatable.
The film deals with male vulnerability and tenderly captures the way men tend to avoid deeper emotional connections with each other. There’s something deeply satisfying in the way the Highlands serve to break down the men’s stoic masks and help them get to their truths.
The North explores friendship and what’s left unsaid. Chris and Lluis stubbornly hold things back. Bart Schrijver builds this restraint, making the audience long for a breakthrough.
In a time of 5-second dopamine hits and constant swiping and scrolling, The North asks us to slow down, observe and feel. It’s a timely film, and a much-needed story in our current climate. If you surrender to the journey, it will hit you in the gut, in the best way possible.
The North is on now in cinemas nationally as part of the Russell Hobbs 2025 British Film Festival.
Tickets: https://britishfilmfestival.com.au/films/bff25-the-north
Website: https://britishfilmfestival.com.au/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/britishfilmfest/
It can be streamed outside of Australia and New Zealand at Tuesday Film.
Watch the trailer:
Film details:
Title: The North
Director: Bart Schrijver
Cast: Carles Pulido, Bart Harder
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Duration: 131 mins
