There have been countless artists whose work is designed to reflect their belief that we live in a ludicrous and confusing world, one where logic is rare and existence is just a series of disjointed, arbitrary moments in which nothing can ever be truly comprehended. Yet, very few are quite as committed to the art of absurdity as Alex van Warmerdam, whose work is very much based on his interest in exploring the more peculiar side of the human condition. A prolific filmmaker who has made several well-received films in his native Netherlands, his crowning achievement is often considered to be The Northerners (Dutch: De Noorderlingen), a strange and disquieting blend of dark comedy and psychological horror, in which the director tells the interweaving stories of a small community of people, whose entire lives exist within their small town, which is quite literally a single street situated on the outskirts of a seemingly enchanted forest in which many people find themselves getting lost while trying to make their way to whatever lies on the other side. Not something that is necessarily easy to understand at the best of times, but still a film that offers a unique and daring perspective in how it approaches certain themes that are embedded at the heart of the story, The Northerners is a film best suited to those with an affection for the surreal, since the director offers it an abundance here, daring to oscillate between the past and present in a manner that is unorthodox and daring, and reveals certain elements about humanity by plunging us into a state of total confusion, from which are more than willing to perceive the sometimes unquestionably strange narrative, which only becomes more peculiar the further we attempt to make sense of the off-the-wall ideas that van Warmerdam brings forward, negotiating logic with a director whose clear sense of incredulity to traditional narrative techniques makes for an invigorating and daring dark comedy that contains multiple riveting layers.

One of the defining traits of The Northerners comes in the form of its narrative approach, which van Warmerdam curates through the use of several interconnected vignettes, which overlap with one another, the film leaping between perspectives as it weaves together a tapestry of different lives, each one unique and complex in its way. This is a mostly plotless film since nothing happens throughout its running time – there is certainly progression in terms of each story, but they don’t lead to any discernible point and seem to be unravelling into something that collectively leaves the viewer more confused by the end than we were at the start, which is quite a rare accomplishment and one in which the director takes a lot of pride. Much of this comes from how random so much of this film seems on the surface – everything happens concurrently and seemingly without even an iota of rhyme or reason, which may bewilder the viewer at the start but begins to resemble something vaguely coherent once all the pieces fall into place and we understand the overall intentions that drive the film, even if we can’t entirely comprehend exactly what they are supposed to represent. He’s helped by a terrific ensemble cast filled with several terrific local character actors that commit wholeheartedly to this off-the-wall premise, playing these eccentric individuals with such thorough dedication to a very strange premise, aligning perfectly with the director’s vision and understanding simplicity what he was aiming to achieve, which was a free-wheeling, loosely-structured comedy-of-errors based around common perceptions of Dutch culture, as filtered through an off-the-wall, deeply surreal series of encounters between heightened versions of archetypal characters that the director curates into an engaging and wickedly entertaining dark comedy that is not at all subtle, but has many fascinating nuances that keep us thoroughly invested as we traverse this strange version of reality.

The quality that most significantly helps van Warmerdam in crafting this story is the tone of the film. The Northerners are successful solely on its ability to feel like a lucid dream, a bizarre and surreal bundle of off-kilter images that don’t make much sense, but ultimately do carry some meaning, should we be willing to spend enough time with these characters. Tonally, the film is unlike anything we are likely to see, and while some have attributed this to the Dutch sense of humour, which usually does veer towards occupying the space between deeply intellectual and delightfully vulgar, the reality is that the director was aiming to do something entirely bespoke, and thus comparing this film to any other work, fictional or otherwise, is never going to quite make sense. The lack of logic is a recurring theme throughout the film, so it makes sense that the actual intentions behind it matched. The best description for The Northerners would be as a film that focuses on the poetry of absurdity, one that is driven by the mood, which is difficult to pin down but still very much aligned with a kind of artistic integrity that van Warmerdam emphasizes as his primary reason for telling this story, which is a strange and offbeat dark comedy that is as deranged as it is heartwarming, the two existing in tandem and informing so much of the atmosphere that guides the film. It isn’t often that we find a film that is so unquestionably confusing that we have to resort to crediting its success to its ability to strike a very specific tone before anything else, but this is a perfect example of just how effective this approach can be when done properly, which is one of the many fascinating elements that inform and guide this film, aiding it in becoming quite a daring piece of storytelling that is as strange as it is enticing.

As easy as it may seem to chalk up all the oddities embedded in The Northerners to the director’s clear disdain for logic and gleeful willingness to abandon all sense of convention for the sake of doing something original, to condense it to nothing more than fluent absurdity is a massively reductive approach and does an immense disservice to a film that is far more profound than we initially anticipate. There is a method to the madness, and van Warmerdam ensures that we are guided through this nightmarish, surreal version of the world in such a way that we never quite lose track of where we are going since there is always something distinctly intriguing simmering beneath the surface. This doesn’t mean that it makes the storyline any less impenetrable, and efforts to make sense of everything prove to be a fool’s errand. However, there are certain contextual clues and subtle hints hidden throughout the film that assist in giving us an idea of the main themes with which the director was working, and the more willing we are to connect these disparate concepts, the clearer the ideas drive the story to become. This is ultimately a film that offers a unique glimpse into the human mind, as seen through the intersecting stories of about a dozen bizarre characters that represent the sordid underbelly of existence. They exemplify a variety of carnal sins and express themselves through animalistic sexuality and grotesque activities that paint a portrait of a very different side of our species. Yet, it’s rendered so incredibly endearing, and we find that van Warmerdam approaches these characters with a sense of empathy, something we don’t necessarily expect from this material. Understanding every detail is impossible, but as a generally broad analysis of the human condition through a distinctly daring visionary perspective, it proves to be quite an extraordinary piece of storytelling, even at its most disturbed.

The effort that goes into making sense of a film like The Northerners is not only useless, but it is relatively counterintuitive to the intentions of the story, which were to cobble together several different ideas in a manner that is decidedly unconventional and perhaps even quite tacky, creating a new kind of storytelling in which the narrative matters very little, and instead, it’s the style and atmosphere that carry the most importance. Visually, van Warmerdam puts a lot of attention into the small details – the design of the town in which the characters live is simple but extremely effective, acting as the stage on which this overly theatrical, often borderline excessive, dark comedy takes place, and where the bleakness and feeling of entrapment contributes to the underlying sense of despair that is so integral to the film. Ultimately, The Northerners is a film designed to instil a sense of discomfort in the viewer, which seems like a shortcoming until we realize just how effective this can be when done correctly, and the right balance between the profane and the profound is found, which the director immediately establishes firm control over in the haunting opening moments. This is not a film afraid to offend or unsettle, and we discover very early that the director has both of these in mind when crafting this story, which goes in many unexpected directions but proves to be an absolute delight in every conceivable way, developing on many of its more peculiar ideas with a level of unexpected sophistication, turning The Northerners into an absolute delight, granted one has enough of a sense of humour to handle some of the film’s more off-kilter moments.