THE NORTH
THE NETHERLANDS
Director: Bart Schrijver
Writer: Bart Schrijver
Cast: Bart Harder, Carles Pulido, Olly Bassi
Genre: Drama, Friendship, Nature, Road Movie
130 minutes: English – 2025
World Premiere – Rotterdam International Film Festival (2025) | Best Cinematography – Dutch Film Festival | Official Selection – Edinburgh International Film Festival
“Nothing brings out the truth in you like walking for a long time in nature.”
A decade after being best friends and roommates, Chris (35) and Lluis (34) set out on a 600-kilometer trek through the Scottish Highlands, following the West Highland Way and the remote Cape Wrath Trail. Over 30 days, the two men push through harsh weather, aching muscles, and deep silence—not just to reach their physical destination, but to try to rekindle a powerful friendship that has quietly drifted apart.
Chris is still tied to the anxieties of work and life back home. Lluis is determined to prove something to himself. And the Highlands, vast and indifferent, offer no easy answers—only the quiet space to confront what’s been buried.
Shot entirely on location and featuring real-life long-distance hiking, The North is a profound meditation on friendship, solitude, masculinity, and the spiritual renewal that can only be found through deep immersion in nature. Director Bart Schrijver gives us not only one of the most visually stunning outdoor films in recent memory, but also a deeply emotional journey rooted in lived experience.
“Shot on location and rooted in a wholly immersive sense of verisimilitude, every aspect of The North so deliberately and intuitively puts the viewer in the same headspace as the characters themselves.”
— RGM
“The North has a kind of purifying and uplifting effect that builds as the hikers approach their destination; a reminder for those interested in cinema going the distance, how the medium – in its commitment, immersion and focus – reaches altitudes TV can’t touch.”
— The Guardian