Hege and Odin in FOLKTALES, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Lars Erlend Tubaas Øymo. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
‘Folktales’ receives 7 out of 10 stars.
Opening in theaters in New York on July 25th before releasing in Los Angeles and additional cities on August 1st, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing’s ‘Folktales’ offers a fascinating, emotional look at a very untraditional –– yet historic high school in Norway.
With life lessons including survival in arctic conditions and the care and training of sled dogs, it’s a different education, but clearly a valuable one.
Related Article: ‘Folktales’ Exclusive Clip
Initial Thoughts
Romain and Mjød in FOLKTALES, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Tori Edvin Eliassen. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Documentaries focused on the teen experience often fall into the category of stresses, strains and bad behavior, with some redemption to be found.
And while tempers can run high here, ‘Folktales’ instead chooses to focus on the educational, spiritual and moral advantages of the Pasvik Folk High School in Norway, where youngsters are given training in survival, teamwork and self-esteem.
Script and Direction
Heidi Ewing, co-director of FOLKTALES, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Mei Tao. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady have previously been behind the likes of ‘Jesus Camp’, ‘Endangered’ and ‘The Boys of Baraka’ and they certainly bring all their experience to bear here.
While ‘Folktales’ sometimes feels like it will slip from dreamlike into out-and-out sleepy, the gentle tone and unhurried narrative wins you over.
Cast and Performances
Bjørn Tore and Tigergutt in FOLKTALES, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Tori Edvin Eliassen. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
The various teenagers that the directors choose to focus on are well selected; the likes of young Hege, dealing with grief and body issues, figures out her destiny among the sled dogs who form a crucible part of the syllabus.
Romain, meanwhile, discovers the confidence he needs after previously quitting the course because of the pressures of the wilderness and his own emotional issues.
If there’s one issue to be raised it’s that trying to blend the story of the teens with that of the dogs sometimes sees competition rise –– you occasionally find yourself wishing the filmmakers would cut back to the animals rather than the whiny kids.
And we’d have to offer a trigger warning because the film doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of dealing with working animals.
Final Thoughts
A scene from FOLKTALES, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Tori Edvin Eliassen. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
‘Folktales’ is a confident, uplifting and interesting look into a world many people outside Norway may never have heard about. For that reason, it’s more than worth tracking down –– even if you have to take a sled to your nearest theater.
Showtimes & Tickets
On the precipice of adulthood, teenagers converge at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway. Dropped at the edge of the world, they must rely on only themselves,… Read the Plot
What’s the story of ‘Folktales’?
On the precipice of adulthood, teenagers converge at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway. Dropped at the edge of the world, they must rely on only themselves, one another, and a loyal pack of sled dogs as they all grow in unexpected directions.
Theatrical one-sheet for FOLKTALES, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Other Movies featuring dogs:
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Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera protect children from a deadly fire in the new trailer for The Lost Bus.
On Tuesday, Apple TV+ dropped the first official trailer for The Lost Bus, a film inspired by Lizzie Johnson’s book, Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire, which was about the 2018 wildfire in Paradise, California.
The trailer opens with McConaughey’s character, Kevin, hearing a call for help over the radio that there are “23 kids who are stranded” at an elementary school and need to be picked up and saved from the wildfire. And the children happen to be in Mary’s class (played by Ferrera). A still in the trailer calls the blaze “the deadliest wildfire in California history.”
The film’s official synopsis reads, “The Lost Bus is a white-knuckle ride through one of America’s deadliest wildfires as a wayward school bus driver (McConaughey) and a dedicated school teacher (Ferrera) battle to save 23 children from the terrifying inferno.”
In addition to the Interstellar actor and Barbie actress, Yul Vazquez, Ashlie Atkinson and Spencer Watson also star in the film.
The Lost Bus is directed by Paul Greengrass (the Jason Bourne franchise), and he also produces the film alongside Brad Inglesby, Gregory Goodman and Jason Blum for Blumhouse Productions as well as Jamie Lee Curtis for Comet Pictures. Executive producers include Amy Lord and Johnson. Greengrass and Inglesby penned the screenplay.
The film will release in select theaters on Sept. 19 and will be available to stream on Apple TV+ on Oct. 3.
WWE and Five Nights at Freddy’s are the latest properties joining this year’s bone-chilling Halloween Horror Nights house lineup.
Initially teased in June by Jason Blum during the Blumhouse 15th anniversary panel at CCXP Mexico and then by HHN social accounts, the Five Nights at Freddy’s experience will see guests fighting to stay alive as they navigate a house based on the 2023 film, adapted from Scott Cawthon’s wildly popular horror game of the same name. Guests will “follow in the footsteps” of Mike (played in the film by Josh Hutcherson), a newly hired night security guard for the abandoned themed entertainment center Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria who discovers that nothing at Freddy’s is what it seems.
As parkgoers move through the center’s corridors — including the security room and showroom — they will encounter full-scale replicas of Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Bonnie, Foxy, and Mr. Cupcake, created in collaboration with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, who was behind the film’s animatronics and costumes. The journey will bring guests face-to-face with the supernatural, luring them “into the black heart of an unspeakable nightmare” in a sequence of horrors arriving shortly ahead of the December release of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.
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Beyond this latest Blumhouse collaboration, HHN is expanding its partnerships for 2025 to the world of entertainment wrestling with WWE Presents: The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks house. As part of this immersive experience, fans will travel through the light of the lantern before going “head-to-head” with Bo Dallas’ Uncle Howdy in a maze that honors the legacy of the late Bray Wyatt. Derived from the creative mind of Wyatt and inspired by characters from the Firefly Funhouse, The Wyatt Sicks were resurrected in 2024 by Wyatt’s brother, Dallas, whose Uncle Howdy now serves as the stable’s fearless leader.
After disrupting the WWE with their ominous presence, these five dark and twisted characters have now come to do the same at HHN alongside Bray’s alter ego, The Fiend, in a house that will transport fans into the maniacal minds of each member. As guests walk through the horrific domains of Uncle Howdy, Ramblin Rabbit, Mercy the Buzzard, Abby the Witch, and Huskus the Pig, they will be stalked by The Fiend, and forced to survive the group’s “bloody retribution on a world that has abandoned them,” according to the event.
Fans of the WWE (formerly the WWF) will remember that this is not the first time HHN has celebrated the crossover between the wrestling community and the horror genre. Back in 2000, The Undertaker was recognized at the Hollywood event with his own house, “The Undertaker: No Mercy,” alongside an Eyegore Award. The former honors were last bestowed in 2014 to creatives including Robert Rodriguez and Slash (who has his own themed bar at this year’s Hollywood event) for creative achievements in the horror genre.
Five Nights at Freddy’s marks another return for the annual Halloween event, which first appeared in 2023 as part of a bicoastal photo-op experience on CityWalk also featuring M3GAN, The Black Phone, and The Exorcist: Believer. FNAF also appeared that same year as part of Universal Studios Hollywood’s Blumhouse: Behind the Screams experience.
Both the FNAF and WWE houses will appear at the Universal Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood events, which kick off this year on Aug. 29 and Sept. 4, respectively. The 2025 event has previously revealed houses for Fallout, the 40th anniversary of Friday the 13th, Terrifier, and a slew of original maze concepts and scare zones.
Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, who featured in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, has been allegedly gunned down and killed in the West Bank adjoining Israel.
Yuval Abraham, who co-directed the film with Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra, claimed on his X page that Israeli settler Yinon Levi had shot Hathaleen, who is also known as Odeh Hadalin and is from the West Bank community of Masafer Yatta.
“An Israeli settler just shot Odah Hadalin in the lungs, a remarkable activist who helped us film No Other Land in Masafer Yatta. Residents identified Levi, sanctioned by the EU and U.S., as the shooter. This is him in the video firing like crazy,” Abraham posted. The Israeli filmmaker included a video that apparently shows Levi with a gun in hand and in a confrontation with Palestinians.
Co-director Adra on his own X page posted the statement: “This is the settler who killed our dear friend Awdah Hathaleen. At the end of the video, he fires the bullet that took the life of Awdah. Today, the apartheid court decided to release him to house arrest. Yinon Levi, a settler sanctioned by 9 countries (now 8, because of Trump).”
The Hollywood Reporter has also independently verified that the July 28 incident that led to the death of Hadalin took place. It’s understood Levi was arrested after the shooting incident and has since been released and is now held under house arrest.
Levi is also subject to financial sanctions and a travel ban from the EU due to “serious human rights violations and abuses” first imposed in April 2024.
The U.S. under President Joe Biden in Feb. 2024 sanctioned Levi for leading violent extremist groups in the West Bank, but those measures against Levi were lifted by the Trump administration in Jan. 2025.
The No Other Land documentary, made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective and which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers. The film also centers on the filmmaking partnership between co-directors Adra and Abraham.
Another of the No Other Land co-directors, Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, was injured and detained after a conflict that took place on the West Bank in March.
Elizabeth Olsen has a big decision ahead of her in the trailer for the A24 feature Eternity.
Miles Teller and Callum Turner also star in the romantic comedy from director David Freyne. The movie is set to premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival ahead of its theatrical release in November. John Early, Olga Merediz and Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph round out the cast.
Eternity is set in an afterlife where souls are granted one week to pick where they will spend eternity. After she dies, Joan (Olsen) must choose between Larry (Teller), with whom she shared her life, and her first love, Luke (Turner), who died many years ago.
“A lot has happened in a week,” a confused Olsen tells Teller in the trailer. “You died. I died. I’ve just been reunited with both of my dead husbands, and I have to pick where to spend eternity.”
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Freyne helmed the film from a script he co-wrote with Pat Cunnane, whose original screenplay landed on the Black List in 2022. Tim White and Trevor White serve as producers.
Olsen’s recent features have included The Assessment and His Three Daughters. Teller recently led in the Apple TV+ movie The Gorge and has a role in next year’s Michael Jackson biopic Michael. Turner starred in last year’s Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air.
During an interview with Extra from earlier this year, Olsen gave hints about Eternity. “It’s real fun,” the actress said at the time. “It’s a callback to Billy Wilder films. I think it’s gonna be a special romantic comedy that we’re all really proud of. I’m excited for it to come out this year.”
New feature films from Alice Winocour, Arnaud Desplechin, Kentaro Hirase and Yutaro Seki, Agnieszka Holland and Milagros Mumenthaler will compete in the San Sebastian Film Festival official selection.
Winocour, who won the special jury prize at San Sebastián with Proxima in 2019, will return to the competition with her fifth film, Couture, a French American co-production starring Angelina Jolie and Louis Garrel set in the fashion world.
Frenchman Desplechin will participate for the first time in competition with Two Pianos, in which a virtuoso pianist returns to his hometown of Lyon to experience a story of impossible love. Among the cast members are François Civil, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Charlotte Rampling and Hippolyte Girardot.
The duo made up of Hirase and Seki, who co-directed 2022’s Roleless with Masahiko Sato, will premiere their second feature film, the Japanese production Sai. Actor Teruyuki Kagawa comes back to star in the dark tale in which a mysterious man tragically enters the lives of a number of people, appearing under different identities.
Elsewhere, Holland’s new film, a Franz Kafka biopic titled Franz, will premiere as the director returns to San Sebastian. Argentine filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler will debut in competition with her third film, The Currents, a Swiss-Argentine co-production starring Isabel Aimé González Sola in the role of a woman confronting a past she thought she had left behind.
These titles join the four previously announced Spanish productions that will also compete at the Spanish festival: Maspalomas, by Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi; Good Valley Stories, by José Luis Guerin; Los Tigres, by Alberto Rodríguez, and Sundays, by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa. The rest of the feature films included in the competition will be announced in the coming weeks.
The 73rd edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival runs Sept. 19-27.
