1979. Ester has just moved to the north of Norway to start working in a primary school. Being Sámi, she feels an innate, even unintentional shame about her origins – the 20-year-old tries to fit in, make racist jokes, and blend in with everyone else. Soon, her cousin Mihkkal takes her to a protest on the Alta river to stop the construction of a dam. When members of the Sámi community call for a hunger strike in front of the parliament building in Oslo, Ester needs to choose who she wants to be and whether she is willing to give up a part of herself.

A fable about a young person’s self-awareness, the politics of discrimination and small sips of fighting spirit that has stirred in people’s chests for generations. Norwegian filmmaker Ole Giæver (Out of Nature screened at RIGA IFF in 2015) was two years old when the Alta protest took place, and the film is based on historical testimonies and participants’ memories. In this drama, which has won festival awards in Gothenburg, Seattle and elsewhere, we see something more ambitious through the lens of the Norwegianization of the Sámi project: this is not a rebellion of romantic ideals. It is not an existential battle for the recognition of self and community alone, but for our rights to land, water and air.