This Norwegian film moved me a great deal. It is easy to romanticise the past, to long for the simpler days. To me this is dangerous nonsense, a false idea of history. Life was hard in so many ways that we can not imagine. What impresses me is the way that people could turn their hands to anything, they had years of training in using body arm and hands, something I see missing in so many people these days. So many of us are hand illiterate.
The film is full of little gems for the green woodworker, and the same for anyone who works the land.
There can be romanticism in a life of hard work and simpler ways. Having a sympathetic view on the past does not mean that one thinks it was easy, just that there are worse fates than honest graft…