"Long ago, the world was shrouded in eternal darkness. Nothing grew, and there was no life, except in one place, the Blue Mountain where the Blue Gnomes live. By the light of the moon, on top of the Blue Mountain, grew the juiciest blueberries. And one day these blueberries changed everything, because there is something else in the Blue Mountain, the Magic silver. By a small accident, the gnomes discovered the secret of the Magic Silver. That's how the very first magic hour began. But good things never come without obligations. The mountain understood that it was a secret to be kept, and every blue gnome that's outside when the mountain closes will disappear forever. Because you cannot just come and go as you want if your job is to create light to bring to the world. Every morning and every evening we make the magic hour and bring night and day to the world. That is the reason for our existence."
The king of the blue mountain is immensely old. He has lived a long life, and he now sees only grey. It is the way of the world, they know, but when a gnome looses his blue vision, his time is near. The king has a daughter, Bluerose (Fjellrose), princess of the Blue Mountain, but the princess is not ready. Her crown sits in the cave of the ancient ones, but it does not shine, because a royal crown can only shine when its bearer had performed deeds that make him or her worth it of their position. Bluerose has never done anything. She has never even left the mountain.
Every day, during the magic hour, the children of the mountain go outside and play in the sun. They look for pine cones (that are more or less like balls to them), ride toboggans and play in the snow. Then, when the mountain is about to close, the bell rings, and they rush inside, only to do the same thing again the next day. But Bluerose never joins her friends. She is afraid. What if the sleigh goes too fast and I can not stop? The king tells her about a time when he was as many winters old as she is now, when he went outside, the cold bit into his cheeks and he had butterflies in his stomach. He knows, however, not to push her. She has to make the choice to go out on her own.
"If a gnome is afraid of almost everything, how can she ever become courageous?"
"If you are never afraid, you can never be brave."
Bluerose didn't know how sick her father actually was. When she finds out he's lost his blue vision, she asks the elders for help (ancient genomes, claimed by the mountain long ago, whose faces now speak from the rocks). One of the ancient ones remembers something. When he was young, he once heard house dwellers talking about a powerful thing. Someone was sick, but they said if they had that one powerful thing, they could cure him. The thing was called "money". The ancient one has never seen it, but if it cures diseases, it must be very powerful.
The trouble is, in order to get some, Bluerose will have to travel to the farm at the foot of the mountain. She doesn't know it yet, but the farm is home to the Red gnomes, and the farmer is already suspicious of gnomes stealing his precious things. The taking of another coin will have repercussions Bluerose could never have imagined.
I loved this movie! It's such a classical fantasy story, but it is so well-done. I loved how carefull the worldbuilding was, and also, the way in which it was presented in the story. This movie really masters the art of "Show, Don't Tell". We learn the details of what makes this universe slowly, little by little. Things like the fact that kings and queens must earn their crowns and make them shine with their actions, or that a gnome (red or blue) disappears if a housedweller (a human being) set eyes upon them. The gnomes have rules. Things like "we always give back what we borrow" and "gnomes always help each other", which reminded me a lot of the rules of Dinotopia (another story with fantastic worldbuilding, in my opinion).
Be that as it may, the worldbuilding is never overwhelming (it never feels like we're getting too much at once), but everything in the world seems magical and a little bit different. Even the expressions they use. When Bluerose looks sad, for instance, her father asks her:
"Why do you look like you lost your blueberry basket?"
When Bluerose reaches the farm, she meets Dreng, king of the Red gnomes. Well... aspiring king. His crown shines, but only because of his mother who is now very old. It is time Dreng earns a crown of their own. In a way, his journey and Bluerose's mirror each other, and they form a great partnership. They can accomplish more, when they are together, but even they cannot do everythng by themselves. The future monarchs need the other gnomes, an idea beautifully expressed in a scene in which they need to lift something, but it's simply too heavy for the two of them alone - I love the simplicity of it. It's great storytelling.
All of these adventure are happening around Christmas, when the farmer is getting ready to propose to a young woman. The movie is set in the past, which is a lovely little touch. His Christmas tree is decorated with lit candles, and he dedicates great effort to setting up the table for the Christmas meal. Bluerose and Dreng end up stuck hiding under that table by the way, at some point, and it really looks like they aren't gonna make it.
Julenatt i Blåfjell is a 2009 Norwegian movie, based on a Norwegian Christmas TV show - I wonder if I can find this anywhere to watch? I love watching movies in foreign languages, love discovering little things about faraway, exotic places, and nordic languages in particular (this movie is in Norwegian) sound very musical to my ears. It's an added special little detail that blue roses are my favourite flowers, so you can imagine how much I liked the name of the main character.
I wish there were more movies like this, in fact, I wish I could write a story like this one day...
It's December 25th. Merry Christmas :)
