Product Details

• Actors: Nils Gaup, Mikkel Gaup, Ingvald Guttorm, Henrik H. Buljo, Inger Utsi
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Lorber
• VHS Release Date: November 11, 1997
• Run Time: 86 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302027748
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #127,730 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Inspired by a mystical legend from Lapland, Pathfinder is an extraordinary story of a boy's deliverance into manhood filled with love, action and suspense and an uplifting sense of adventure.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a beautiful and moving film, March 7, 2001

By 

Ruth Henriquez Lyon (Duluth, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pathfinder [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film, based on an ancient Sami legend, is a coming-of-age story about a boy who witnesses his family's murder by a brutal gang of thieves. How he deals with these murderers, while protecting the rest of his tribe, makes up the principal plot. The movie is simple--simple plot, simple dialogue, simple (but stunning) visuals, and this simplicity lends a great deal of strength to this work. Everything unnecessary has been cut away, much like the lives of the Sami people, a tribal group closely tied to an unforgiving landscape and climate (Lappland).

Although most of the film is action, there is a wonderful relationship that develops between the boy and the tribe's shaman, or "pathfinder." They have only a couple of conversations before fate separates them, but in those brief exchanges the pathfinder imparts all the knowledge the boy needs to take up the mantle of pathfinder himself.

This film is beautifully crafted, well-paced, and provides a wonderful portrait of a culture which has much to teach.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting folktale, May 17, 2000

By 

Bukkene Bruse (Iowa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Pathfinder [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I first saw Pathfinder during my first weeks in Norway as an exchange student. The spoken language in the film is a reconstruction of old Sami and the version I saw initially was subtitled in Norwegian. Despite understanding little of the dialog, the predator-prey dynamic made Pathfinder one of the most suspenseful movies I have ever seen. I've since seen it subtitled in English (and Norwegian after I had learned the language) and I now consider it a cinematic great, well deserving of its Academy Award nomination due to a powerful story, breathtaking landscapes and cultural significance. Who knew a folktale could be so exciting?

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, ethnic action with a blistering soundtrack, June 23, 1999

By 

Knut Blomstroem [e-mail] (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pathfinder [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is the first ever feature film in the Lapp language. It tells the 1000 year old story of the young boy Aigin who sacrificed himself in leading the enemies of his people into dangerous cliffs instead of straight to their village. The freezing temperature and the fast-paced, hot action creates a tension which peaks with an extraordinary, digital soundtrack. The lapps are attacked by a band of tchudes, an ancient band of thieves and murderers coming from what may be Russia, and their impressivelive bleak costumes is a resemblance to Ninja warriors of todays Hong Kong action. Director Niels Gaup have succeeded in making a cultural effort combined with intriguing action.