HotDocs documentary Let Our Mountains live shows injustice after injustice perpetrated by the Norwegian government in spite of the Supreme Court decisions.
Discover one film you didn’t know you needed:
Not in the zeitgeist. Not pushed by streamers.
But still easy to find — and worth sitting with.
And a guide to help you do just that.
Håvard Bustnes’ Let Our Mountains Live opens with a series of striking images of the snow-covered mountains — and the sound of the wind and birds. And then, in the background, an explosion erupts: a cacophony but also the destruction of the mountain, as pieces of it fly into the air. Next, a reindeer’s head, seen up close, turns toward the camera, forcing us into the position of witnesses. The opening shifts back and forth between the construction of Europe’s largest wind farm and the still untouched wide open landscape where reindeer roam freely. It’s a hugely effective way to make us feel that this construction project is in fact an act of destruction.
From there, Bustnes largely traps us in indoor spaces in the city — courtrooms, meeting rooms — where even after the Supreme Court had declared the wind farm’s construction a violation of Sámi human rights, the violations keep coming. The first such space is a courtroom where Sámi protestors are on trial. They’re being prosecuted by the government for — very reasonably — protesting the government’s refusal to act to redress the human rights violations that were proven in the highest court of the country.
The hits keep coming in Let Our Mountains Live
And from there, the hits keep coming. A protracted process over years makes it clear that the Sámi people have two unjust and terrible options. They can accept being relocated — a colonial tactic we know well in North America. Or spend another decade fighting for their rights in court, knowing that the last Supreme Court decision effectively solved nothing in the real world.
Showing us injustice after injustice perpetrated by the government, in spite of the justice system, is an effective way to show the sheer drudgery of coping with human rights violations. But most of the on-the-ground effects of it in Sápmi are reported second-hand rather than filmed for the documentary. The film establishes that the wind farm threatens Sámi reindeer herding, but gives comparatively little context for how deeply herding is tied to Sámi cultural identity, history, and relationship to the land.
The power of documentary is that it can drop you into a world, in a way a courtroom can’t. The opening of Let Our Mountains Live immediately makes us understand that the stakes are physical, environmental, and personal as much as legal. So the film’s retreat into institutional spaces feel increasingly limiting. The opening makes the film’s title visceral to us — but we never return to the land and the community to see what changes once the wind farm is built. However, the world Bustnes increasingly confines us to is the colonial world of meetings, evasive political figures, and a justice system we learn will never fully deliver justice.
For a fictional treatment of the fight for Sámi land rights, check out Arrú.
Discover one film you didn’t know you needed
Not in the zeitgeist. Not pushed by streamers.
But still easy to find — and worth sitting with.
And a guide to help you do just that.
