Cool & Crazy

Many will enjoy this stunning documentary simply because it's funny and focuses on people who might almost come out of a David Lynch movie: the mostly very elderly male voice choir of the quiet and tiny Norwegian fishing community of Bervelåg. Certainly, the scenes of the old boys braving blizzards as they stand singing outdoors, ice gathering on their eyebrows, verge on the surreal, while some of the interview material - particularly the confessions of womanising - strikes an unexpected note. Finally, however, the film goes much deeper than novelty. it's an affectionate, respectful and subtle study of good people unusually content with their lot, despite the weather, isolation and limitations of life up in the Arctic.