The Arctic. At a glimpse it may all appear white. But there is many shades of whiteness. The curtain behind our metaphoric epos is the shade of
polar-imperialism, a non existing term that currently makes the Arctic more important than ever. Our team consists of a Norwegian-German crew and provides a base of nordic approach to polar regions juxtaposed to continental questioning.

This epos is told through a non-spoken visual language where each scene is a performative act carefully build up as a composition itself. We are working in a language of surreal sculptural images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and historical references much like the cosmos of Alejandro Jodorowsky. The prolog makes up the current setting where you see a human pulse incapsulated in a black plastic bag driven by a machine that feeds on a portable petrol generator in the white landscape. Today the polar ice is decreasing and thereby opening closed transport passages and exposes new land and sea areas for fishery and establishment of oil and gas business. The never recognised polar-imperialism increases with new force - all Arctic neighbouring countries strive for legal recognition of larger national territories by increasing research, military armament and activity, financial investment and focus on national integrity. But for how long will the pulse keep on beating?

The imagery of the film then opens to present our protagonists, an anonymous white creature, in-between man and nature that silently guides the spectator through its shades of white. The creature is harvesting ripe snow while a young Sami is waiting by a desolated mountain road. The yield is taken care of by a viking woman and transformed over the open fire. This act introduces the cod, that becomes the second important protagonist of the epos. If one may say that a fish is a protagonist. Northern settlements where based upon cod-fishery since the dawn of ages and that goes for both nordic and indigenous people. «Look at the magnificent strength of its cod» a Sami professor in Tromsø noted, as he saw our protagonist pulsating from a fire within the corpus laying on a snow-bed in the mountains. And this is what the film is offering, there are fragments of stories insinuated but they stay symbolic and it is left to the audience to make their own narration of them. One can also enjoy the compositions without seeking a story to it. Actually, if a spectator says: «The picture of the fishing snowman really burned to my eye» or «The image of the Russian general lowering his flag, that is my picture!» we are most thrilled. Cause, really its about the urge to create metaphoric images that somehow makes an impact.

Our project has been realised with idea and vision from video-artist and biologist Trond Ansten in collaboration with photographer and video-artist Benjamin Breitkopf in a team of five artists from Norway and Germany during May 2015. It was shot in the region of Tromsø, Northern-Norway and most of the scenes where recorded between 23:00 and 03:00 in the night. The sun is slightly below the mountains at this time of the season, and we wanted the sphere of the special dim blue light that occurs. It emphasises details of the landscape and in particular shades within snow-covered land. Working at this hours allowed us to forsake artificial lightening completely and there was only slight corrections in the colour grading postproduction.

One night during the recordings we stumbled across a small concert in town and was struck by the similarity of sphere created by the band «AS Deafness Increases» from Oslo. Their contemporary instrumental music is done with classical instruments, much inspired from sounds of nature. We invited them to make their musical response to our images, and the band came up with 6 pieces that were integrated in the film. We find their music to blend into our composition in a smooth way that supports the atmosphere presented. Much like our main protagonist «White» slides into the composition. Many spectators have been noticing by question that they didn't even recognise this creature and actually that is the intention. Like Andrei Tarkovsky most consciously works with texture in his films, our idea of «White» is that it blends into the scenery both visually and by act. It becomes a subconscious force that almost unnoticeable seduces the audience throughout the film.

Working in a slow mood, taking its time to absorb the sculptures presented, we intend to challenge the audience in their perception of storytelling. Although slow, the use of symbolism is almost frightening dense and embraces your imagination. Our epos intends to work as a condition of tension, the circular nature of it suggests a possible reproportion between what we want to value, and how the world appears to operate. Reaction defined by intuition rather than intellect is to be celebrated.