A powerful new documentary reveals how a remote Norwegian school is helping teenagers fight the mental health pressures of social media by sending them back to the Stone Age. Folktales, from acclaimed filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, follows students at The Pasvik Folk high school in northern Norway as they trade smartphones for sled dogs and learn to live as hunter-gatherers.
An Arctic Antidote to Digital Life
The film captures a radical educational experiment set against a backdrop of near-continuous winter darkness. To reconnect with what one teacher calls their "stone age brain", the adolescents undertake a series of gruelling challenges far from the glow of screens. Their prescribed therapy includes camping in subzero temperatures, building fires from scratch, and driving husky sledges through the wild.
While the documentary doesn't show a formal confiscation of devices, the programme's success hinges on a digital detox. The teens willingly swap online notifications for tangible tasks, like the nerve-shocking plunge into icy water—an activity they somehow manage to frame as fun.
Building Fires and Facing Fears
Not every moment is portrayed as an adventure. The film doesn't shy away from the struggle, highlighting one tense scene where a complaining student is denied access to his teachers' fire and must build his own to survive the cold. The hunting element of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle is also present, though the documentary respectfully avoids showing the moment of the kill.
The students arrive with their own burdens. The most poignant story is that of Hege, who is grappling with deep depression following the murder of her biker father. Others face more common, yet intensely felt, anxieties about belonging and happiness.
Unconditional Canine Therapy
Perhaps the most profound healing shown in Folktales comes not from the extreme cold, but from warm contact with the programme's huskies. A teacher encapsulates this powerful bond, telling a student: "You are more than good enough for that dog just the way you are." This unconditional acceptance offers a stark contrast to the often-judgmental world of social media.
The documentary presents a compelling case for nature and primal skills as tools for modern wellbeing. Folktales will be released in UK and Irish cinemas from 5 December, offering a frostbitten but hopeful glimpse at an alternative path for youth struggling in a digital age.
