Documentary  •  2025  •  106 min

Folktales (2025)

Folktales poster

Folktales (2025)


Rating & Dimensions

Bias Rating
Analyzing...
Leans Traditional
Political: Center
Diversity: Low
Family Values: Mixed

Viewer Rating
7.4

Overview

Folktales is a 2025 documentary directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. It follows three teenagers—Hege, Romain, and Bjørn Tore—as they enroll in a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway, relying on peers and sled dogs to transition from childhood to adulthood amid the wilderness.


Starring Cast

N/A


Where to watch

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Detailed Bias Analysis

Analyzing...
Leans Traditional

Primary

Political: Center
Confidence: High

The documentary examines teenagers overcoming anxiety and self-doubt through nature-based experiential learning in Arctic Norway. Its neutral stance arises from the apolitical focus on individual development without promoting ideological solutions.

Diversity: Low
Confidence: High

The documentary presents white European teenagers as its primary subjects, showing no racial or ethnic diversity in the featured group. Its coming-of-age story emphasizes individual personal development and communal growth without critiquing traditional identities or incorporating explicit DEI elements.

Secondary

Family Values: Mixed
Confidence: Medium

Folktales peripherally touches on family through one student's grief over her father's death but otherwise omits depictions of family structures, roles, or values, centering instead on individual self-discovery among peers. This lack of substantive family content results in a neutral portrayal.

LGBTQ: N/A
Confidence: High

Folktales contains no depiction of LGBTQ+ characters or themes. The documentary observes teenagers navigating personal challenges like anxiety and grief during a gap-year survival program in Arctic Norway, emphasizing growth through nature and community without addressing queer identities.

Trans: N/A
Confidence: Medium

No transgender characters or themes are depicted in the documentary. The film explores teenagers' personal growth at a Norwegian folk high school, with arcs centered on grief, social anxiety, and self-reliance among cisgender students, supporting the absence of any trans-related portrayal.

Female Combat: N/R

The movie does not contain any action or adventure elements.

Gender Swap: No
Confidence: Medium

Folktales documents real teenagers navigating a gap year at a Norwegian folk high school, focusing on their personal growth through dog sledding and wilderness survival, without adapting prior source material or altering established character genders.

Race Swap: No
Confidence: Medium

Folktales documents real teenagers at a Norwegian folk high school without fictional characters, adaptations, or portrayals of historical figures, eliminating any possibility of race swaps.


Viewer Rating Breakdown

7.4

Viewer Rating

Combines user and critic ratings from four sources

User Ratings

IMDB logo
7.2
The Movie Database logo
6.7

Critic Ratings

Rotten Tomatoes logo
8.5
Metacritic logo
7.3

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