My scary Sweden

 

"Mitt Sverige" (My Sweden) is a nature documentary by Hungarian Zoltan Török. His Sweden turns out to be the scariest part! Think icy islands in the Gulf of Bothnia (?) featuring colonies of cormorants, eagles fighting each other, and ravens harassing seal cubs. 

Later, Zoltan and his family go trekking somewhere in Lapland, with its vast and seemingly empty hill tracts and woods. Or not so empty, since we do get to see bears, foxes, lynxes and wolverines. At one point, the documentary becomes unintentionally funny, as Zoltan says that the Sami (Laps) live in harmony with nature...while the camera shows how they herd reindeer with snowmobiles! I assume these are powered by gasoline?

But sure, if you want a good argument to stay indoors in some safe burb in southern Sweden (the civilized part), I suppose "Mitt Sverige" could be worth watching! 

  

The Demon of the North

In my mental universe, the wolverine isn't particularly mysterious. We have a number of them at our local zoo, right here in Stockholm. Kids love 'em. They are cute, cuddly and playful. In fact, they are more cool than brown bears. Of course, they are also extremely dangerous...

If you hate wolverines, "Chasing the Phantom" is not for you. This is definitely a "nerd" show. Apart from a lot of wolverines (what else?), we get to meet a number of human enthusiasts with a perhaps somewhat unhealthy obsession with this particular animal. One of them, Steve Kroschel (who reminds me of the crazy guy from A-Team), even breeds wolverines at his "wildlife center". The center also spouts a moose?! The funniest part of the documentary is when Kroschel's "tame" wolverines attack his camera equipment! Meanwhile, two other wolverine-bitten explorers search the pristine wilderness of Montana's Glacier National Park for the elusive glutton. One of the boys admits that he wants to *be* a wolverine, and "bite whomever he wants to bite". Oookay...

The most fascinating piece of info about the actual wolverines, is that the promiscuous male (who mates with several females) actually returns to all of "his" females, helping to rear the young. An interesting family arrangement, and apparently an unexpected one for scientists who until recently assumed that these animals were solitaires, with little or no meaningful interaction between different members of the species.

Definitely a treat if you like out-sized mustelids, and the crazy folk who chase them. Five stars!