Published Jun 21. 2012 - 11 years ago
Updated or edited Nov 24. 2015

Video review: Swedish Lapland

Vol. 1 Kaitum

We follow Swedish Gunnar Westrin and his friend Palle Andersson on a nice and cozy fly-fishing trip to the northern part of Sweden.


Info
Author: 
Mountain Media
Publisher: 
Mountain Media
Publishing year: 
2012
Minutes: 
60+50
Price: 
29.80
€

Reviewed by: 
Stills from the video Swedish Lapland -
Stills from Swedish Lapland
Mountain Media

This is one of those DVD's that leaves you with an enormous longing to go fishing!
Having watched it a couple of times, I'm sure I can sense a smell of campfire in my fishing jacket, feel the taste of the Arbeg scotch on my tongue and find that one, well chewed caddis fly that I stuck in my lambs wool patch to dry after a successful day on the stream. But it's all in my imagination, and all stimulated by this video.

We follow Swedish author Gunnar Westrin and his friend Palle Andersson on a trip to some streams in northern Sweden that they obviously know quite well and have fished before.
They talk amongst each other of the joy of returning to the stream, and we follow them as the fish together, part ways and fish each their stretches and meet up again on the bank or in the camp and have a great time chatting, eating, drinking and relaxing.
The catches are not spectacular, but you will see some beautiful fish. The quarry is grayling, brown trout and char, and especially a large char caught and released in the final minutes of the DVD ignites my fire. A weighty and beautiful fish, and an exhilarating and joyful fight.

This is as fishing trips should be: a great combination of social interaction and solitude, fishing and catching, relaxing and being tense. The video illustrates the sharing of big and small experiences: the fish, being in the grand landscape of Lapland, being with a good friend and simply enjoying life and what's around you.

This is not one of those edgy, new age, grungy productions, but on the other hand not an über stylish and super esthetic, delicately composed video epos either.
I have praised Swedish Mountain Media for their non-nonsense kind of old school productions, which can be kind of an oasis in the very up-tempo video market where time lapses, grungy music, post production color distortion, scratches and flicker is the order of the day. As most of our regular readers know these effects are not my cuppa, and I like the plain style that these Swedes use. The DVD is the first in a series. This one is dubbed Kaitum, and we can expect two more volumes called Rostu and Laponia.

I'm sure I can sense a smell of campfire and taste the Ardbeg

The video features the dialog between the two anglers as the sound track, but for the benefit of the international audience it's been dubbed in English by two UK narrators or actors, Leslie Moody and Mike Turner. While they certainly do an excellent job, I must admit that I'm not a big fan of dubbing, and I would personally have preferred an original Swedish soundtrack with an English soundtrack or even subtitles as an option. It could have been added as an option to the DVD, but I see no optional soundtracks or subtitles on my DVD-player. The dubbing is, as I said, very well done, but as a matter of personal taste, I just prefer the less artificial original voices.
On the other hand there's a ton of other features and extra material, information on tackle choice, the camp options, helicopter services and much more. While much of this is in essence marketing material, it's also a great help that further fuels the viewer's urge to go. This extra material will be a great help if you start planning a trip like this.

So altogether a very entertaining and practical DVD that can be used both as a great cabin fever cure as a practical intro to a trip up there.


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