Oh the road movie. Almost as overdone as the romance but this year seems to be the year of surprising twists on the traditional and Rune Denstad Langlo’s feature film debut, an International Critics’ Prize winner in Berlin earlier this year, North is about as unique as you could get while still being a road trip film.

A former competitive skier who gave up “the life” after an injury, Jomar now works at as a towrope operator on a local ski hill. Jomar also happens to be depressed and an alcoholic. Not a great mix. After a visit from his friend, he discovers that he has a son by an ex-girlfriend. Life continues to truck along in a swirl of depression when an accident at the lift sends Jomar into the night with nothing more than a few belongings, some gar, booze and a snowmobile in search of the son he’s never seen.

In typical road movie style, Jomar meets a few people along the way that help him grow and provide, some unknowingly, support for his search. The interesting part of Erlend Loe’s script is that the people are not who you’d expect: a young girl and her grandmother, an old man, a teenage boy. Some are easy to imagine as they’re not news but the girl and her grandmother threw a bit of a wrench into the expectation wheel. At each stop Jomar learns something about himself that encourages him to keep going.

Anders Baasma Christiansen beautifully captures the sadness and humour of Jomar in a noteworthy performance that asks him to be the straight man in some fairly wacky situations. The most surprising part of North is its humour and though it’s dealing with some serious issues, it never takes itself too seriously. The balance of comedy and drama are near perfectly at one point even colliding against each other for a scene that is both humorous and sad.

North came as a great surprise. A film that beautifully captures the alien arctic landscape and makes it familiar and which features a great number of laughs combined with a sentimental (though not sappy) story.