Festivals have been quietly usurping holidays as the break of choice over the years. Far from being pale imitations of Woodstock and Glastonbury, many reflect the perse range of interests people across the world hold. But few are quite as intense, and none are as entertaining to watch, as that held at Angsbacka – three miles north of Molkom, Sweden.

An annual festival held on the site of a year-round commune, the festival is a kind of cosmic celebration of oneness with nature. Those who undertake the pilgrimage to the festival site are split into groups in which they will share their innermost thoughts, and discuss their experiences of the various activities that go on throughout the day.

The group on which the documentary focuses is a pretty good mix. There’s Siddharta, the confident, controlled and, supposedly enlightened festival regular; Mervi, a Finnish grandmother who has lived a tough life and is seeking some form of renenwal; Ljus, a former goatherd who always wanted to become a hippie – and succeeded; Marit, the obligatory beautiful, blonde Swede; father of two, writer, and thinker Peter; and finally, the godsend, a cynical Australian named Nick who was told he ‘had to visit this festival’ but quickly realised he was living his worst nightmare.

The various courses, experiences and rituals that these fugitives from modern society engage in vary from such hippy classics as hugging trees while a shaman sings to walking on fire. And, of course, no hippie festival would be complete without tantric sex. The highlight of the events, though, is a beach class in harnessing your energy. Inpiduals gather around and perform various exercises in order to channel the energy around their body, expelling the negative and straightening out the positive. But its uses are not merely so abstract, we are told, in fact these forces are so strong they can even repel attackers… If it’s done right. Can you guess what happens?

Whilst this film can be enjoyed merely by marvelling at how strange some people are, and engaging in some cynical gaffawing at the silly tree-huggers, there is a lot more to be gained. Nick’s journey is particularly fulfilling as he begins on the same level as many of us, sceptical of a festival that appears to be a throwback to a 60s cult, but ends up accepting it for what it is – even if he’s not wholly convinced by its ideas. Mervi provides some beautiful moments of candour too, and her increasingly volatile encounters with Siddharta (who is also seeing a new side to himself as filming goes on) inject some much-needed drama to the proceedings.

All of this is conveyed in some wonderfully unrestrained filming. Perhaps it’s because the group dynamic was so well-balanced or maybe, dare I say it, the ethos of the festival creeping in. Whatever it was that made the narrative flow so naturally and comfortably between the various stories that intertwined during the festival, I certainly found it made for an absorbing experience.

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Get Shareaholic

By: Mike Edwards