The North
Two old friends reconnect on an epic hike across Scotland in Bart Schrijver's unusual and scenic drama.
Bart Harder
Image courtesy of Tull Stories.
by MANSEL STIMPSON
Bart Schrijver's film is about a long-distance hike undertaken in Scotland by two friends. From that you might well assume that The North is a traditional documentary handled in a conventional way. But, in fact, what we have here is something decidedly surprising and quite different from anything you might expect. First, this turns out to be a fictional work in which the two friends, Chris who is Dutch and Lluis who is Spanish, are played by Bart Harder and Carles Pulido respectively. No less significant is the fact that, although the material would suggest a work of standard length, this feature film runs for all of 131 minutes. There is also a third key fact about it to mention at the outset: The North can be considered a film with a clear subject, a text, but it also contains what is virtually a subtext and one which comes to feel no less crucial.
Despite this being a work with actors, its absolute focus is on the month-long walk taken by Chris and Lluis and this will doubtless encourage hiking enthusiasts to seek it out as a film directly and wonderfully expressive of the experience that their favourite activity offers. They are unlikely to be disappointed since capturing all of that is clearly something that Schrijver wanted to do (he is the writer as well as the director here). Indeed, in pursuit of authenticity the filming of The North, which starts off along the West Highland Way and then continues by taking the Cape Wrath Trail, was done in chronological order. Furthermore, there is an absence of any music score until the film’s final scenes and that contributes to its documentary feeling. The hike takes Chris and Lluis through magnificent scenery and, if this is at heart a portrait of an endeavour by two individuals, it is also a tale which enables the camera to take in the majestic wonders of nature. The photographer is Twan Peeters and, working in colour and wide screen, he provides some of the most wonderful film images that you are likely to see this year. The North makes you feel that you are actually there along with Chris and Lluis and, while the photography contributes to that, it is also due to Schrijver’s unforced approach, one that is marked by unhurried pacing and by his refusal to prettify (we will indeed see bad weather from time to time).
In the course of their walk Chris and Lluis encounter a few people in passing, other hikers among them. Indeed, late on there is a memorable scene when they have a chance meeting with Jack who has taken up hiking on retirement and has found great happiness in it (Jack is played by John McQuiston who is very well cast). However, this is something of an exception since others chanced on make no very strong impression. But that is apt enough because it serves to underline the fact that the friendship of Chris and Lluis is a central feature of the film. We learn that they are in their thirties and had been friends in their youth but are meeting again after a ten-year gap having agreed to repeat the walk that they had done together in those bygone days. From their talk it becomes clear that their lives have taken very different paths. Chris has a settled life with his wife and their two children but is tied down by his work. That it is a dominating factor in his life becomes apparent because, even during this rare break from it, he frequently receives calls on his phone from a business colleague seeking advice and warning of all the things that will need his urgent attention as soon as he gets back. In contrast to that, Lluis is a loner who goes his own way and has resisted a conventional lifestyle. He had once been employed making wedding videos but has given that up and, regarding his family, he mentions that he intends to phone his father when he can tell him that the walk has been completed but he's not planning to be in touch with anybody earlier than that.
There are two occasions in the course of the walk when for different reasons we find Chris and Lluis doing a stretch of it alone. It is characteristic of Schrijver’s writing here that he refuses to play up any sense of drama and quietly allows these scenes to express the sense of loss caused by one of the two being absent. Despite the fact that these two are not intimate buddies who readily share their thoughts, we are subtly made aware of the importance of their companionship and one theme of The North is the human need for friendship as illustrated by the relationship of these two men.
The other issue touched on at intervals until it too emerges as a key issue is the extent to which so many of us are cut off from nature and accept an urban lifestyle in which we are dependent on work which, whether we enjoy it or not, takes up so much of our lives. The phone calls to Chris are constant reminders of this, but the point is most directly made in that meeting with Jack who has only now found real happiness in the hiking that he has turned to after a lifetime of working five days a week. For those who seek out The North due to their own love of hiking, these matters may well appear secondary but, even if they emerge as a kind of subtext, others may regard them as being the real crux of the work.
However one views it, The North is an unusual endeavour and, while one would never call Schrijver a showy director, his filmmaking skill is admirably apparent in the variation of shots that he finds when so much of the film is centred on two men walking. The sense of realism attained is undoubtedly linked to the pacing which, given the different levels on which the film is working, is an essential factor. Some viewers who are out of tune with this have said that the film would benefit by losing as much as thirty minutes or so. I think that to be quite wrong although I would acknowledge that a reduction of five minutes in its length might be beneficial. Both Harder and Pulido play their roles with the requisite naturalism and convince in an emotional climax which, even if it has been impliedly prepared for, breaks upon us somewhat unannounced. The quiet conclusion that follows is entirely in keeping with the tone of a film which is far more ambitious than might be anticipated. Even those who find themselves not quite on its wavelength may well be overawed by the way in which The North captures the grandeur of the Scottish scenery, but I would argue that its achievement is wider and more singular than that.
Cast: Bart Harder, Carles Pulido, Olly Bassi, John McQuiston, Sharon Verdegem, Gráinne Holmes Blumenthal, Theo Fraser, Jacob Smyth, Steve Walker, Pep Planas, Matthjis van Sande Bakhuyzen.
Dir Bart Schrijver, Pro Bart Schrijver, Arnold Janssen and Tom Holscher, Screenplay Bart Schrijver, Ph Twan Peeters, Ed Gijs Walstra, Music Michiel Nieuwenhuijs.
Tuesday Studio-Tull Stories.
131 mins. Netherlands. 2025. UK Rel: 24 April 2026. Cert. 15.
