A tall, blonde man in a light blue suit walks around among elephants in Nepal’s jungles. He has an electric guitar under his arm, ready to break into song. The Icelandic alien Högni (from the cult band Hjaltalín) travels around the Asian country with his companion Anna Tera, who grew up in Nepal. Their aim is to break old taboos about mental illness. Both have a history of bipolar disorder, and they share their unusual, tragicomic and sometimes surreal stories along the way. A heavy subject told in a wonderfully warm and outgoing indie form as a docu-musical with two eccentrics in the lead role. Anna Tera and Högni’s personal stories are complemented by old Super-8 footage from their childhood.
The Hero's Journey to The Third Pole - a Bipolar Musical Documentary with Elephants (2021) is currently not available on any services.
Andri Snær Magnason, Anní Ólafsdóttir
