Ester is a young substitute schoolteacher in the northern Norwegian town of Alta who hides a deep secret from her students. She is Sámi, the native people of Scandinavia, but she keeps her identity hidden to blend in with the townsfolk. It is 1979, a time in Norway when Sámi people could still be mocked openly wears her assimilation uneasily, but not so her activist cousin Mihkkal, who proudly embraces his roots. Mihkkal convinces Ester to join a demonstration against a gigantic government plan to dam the local river for hydroelectric power. Initially concerned about the environmental costs, Ester is emotionally shaken when she discovers the artificial lake would submerge an entire Sámi village.
Director Ole Giæver effectively uses the fictional eyes of Ester to convey the outrage of the true-life Alta Dam conflict that helped expose Norway's long, dark history of oppression over its indigenous people. Winning awards at both Tromsø and Göteborg this year, Let the River Flow is a sad yet triumphant story of an indigenous spirit that refuses to fade away.
