Some films are photographed and edited with such care and skill, you feel like you can breathe the air, scent the spring growth, feel the ground beneath your feet. Such a film is Songs of Earth, a visually stunning ode to the fjords, glaciers, lakes and mountains of Norway, where 84-year-old Jorgen has lived his entire life in the home where filmmaker Margreth Olin was born.
Executive produced by Wim Wenders and Liv Ullmann, the film is as much a sensory experience as any Hollywood spectacular. But it’s also much more than that, a profound meditation on being in — and of — nature, a love letter from a daughter to her father, and a rueful, vibrant reflection on the passage of time.
Songs of Earth is not a small movie. It’s a documentary that should be seen on the biggest screen at your disposal — whatever showcases its epic cinematography to its best advantage… a tone poem and equally surely a meditation on all manner of things, from our relationship with nature to the parent-child bond.
Daniel Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter
A sumptuous score by Rebekka Karijord and the London Symphony Orchestra envelops the film with the awe-inspiring power of nature. The cinematography by Lars Erlend Tubaas Øymo offers a grand sense of scale, too, that beautifully captures the call of the wild that draws Jørgen back to the woods. Songs of Earth is a grand essay film: a beautiful work of art that evocatively reminds audiences of the natural wonders to preserve for generations to come.
Pat Mullen, POV magazine
Margreth Olin
Jørgen Mykle, Magnhild Mykløen
Norway
2023
In Norwegian with English subtitles
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Credits
Producer
Lena Faye-Lund Sandvik, Margreth Olin
Screenwriter
Margreth Olin
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