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Contact Sunna at
sunna@bjartsyn.is
Inspired from a children´s book by Jón Ármann Steinsson
Written by Sunna Guðnadóttir and Jón Ármann Steinsson
Director TBC
Supported by Icelandic Film Centre, CineKid and RÚV
True North follows ELVA (11), a German-Icelandic girl with a wild imagination whose creative impulses often spiral into chaos. When she accidentally sabotages her mother's opera premiere in Dresden, it's one incident too many. Her mother, KLARA (40s), faces a career-ending warning, and Elva, crushed by guilt and convinced she's in her mother's way, proposes to go to Iceland to reconnect with her estranged father, who had left them three years earlier.
Arriving in Ísafjörður, a remote town in the north of Iceland, Elva realises it is nothing like what she hoped for. She's met with the devastating absence of the father she thought would be there for her. Her evasive grandparents, ROSA and MAGNUS (70s), avoid answering any questions about his whereabouts and tell her that he will be there in a few days. Starting at her new school is no relief, merely adding to her feelings of disappointment and loneliness. Soon, Elva starts to suspect that her father isn't the man she thought he was.
When rumours of a polar bear sighting spread through town, a rumour that Elva unintentionally started, a hunt begins. Elva bonds with LEIFUR (11), a quiet boy who shares her sense of not quite belonging. At drama class, she meets STEFANÍA (40s), an eccentric teacher who knew her father as a child and reluctantly reveals he has a studio by the docks. When Elva finds it, filled with empty bottles and unfinished paintings, she must face the devastating truth: her father is the town drunk. Upset, she runs to the docks, falls into the icy water, and is rescued by SNOWDEN, a talking polar bear who becomes her secret confidant, offering the understanding and comfort her absent father cannot. As THOR (40), the town's policeman, and MORDUR (60), an obsessed exterminator, escalate the hunt for the bear, Elva hides Snowden in her closet.
On the night of the Christmas play, hunters led by THOR and MORDUR follow what they believe are polar bear tracks to the school during the performance. To save Snowden from being captured, Elva creates a decoy by wearing the wolf costume from the musical and fleeing into the night. Her father, GUNNAR (45), finally ready to step up, appears at the school and realises his daughter is in danger. He rushes to find that she is cornered by the hunters. He runs in front of the hunters to be with his daughter. Elva makes an impassioned speech defending her “new friend” and, by extension, all outsiders. The townspeople, impressed by her courage, decide to stand with her and form a barrier between her and the hunters, who retreat. Meanwhile, Klara, having seen the news in Dresden about the polar bear hunt, jumps on a plane to Iceland and reunites with her daughter, believing she is in danger.
Finally, the Christmas musical can take place, but with a new twist. Elva has found ways to channel her resourcefulness for good and has found a new sense of belonging in a community that welcomes her. In the final scene, Snowden parts with Elva into the wilderness with the words, "You have found your true north. Now I go and find mine."
Snowden, visible only to Elva, was a companion she needed to cope with her father's absence and the feelings of isolation and uncertainty.