I'm translating these two old news articles to provide context for the movie Kill Buljo (Wikipedia / IMDb / TMDB / DTDD), which will be shown on Blorptube on New Year's Eve.

Before I get into the news articles themselves, I wanted to direct you all to my translation of "A Sámi State of Our Own", and I also wanted to quote a snippet from this 2014 opinion piece by Maria Halvorsen, published on Radikalpolitikk.no, which briefly touches on Kill Buljo's director's relationship to his own Sámi heritage:

When filmmaker Tommy Wirkola^[Tommy Wirkola was born in 1979. He also directed Dead Snow and Spermageddon among other films.] was asked if he was Sámi, he jokingly answered that he wasn't, "he just spoke Sámi with his family at home". This is unfortunately not very far from the truth when it comes to the Sámi generation born around the time of the Second World War. This led to some peculiar family constellations where parents or grandparents weren't Sámi even though Sámi was their first language, and some siblings sharing the same parents were ethnically Norwegian, others Sámi, and others refused the whole question of ethnic identity.

I may translate the rest of that opinion piece later.

But anyways, without further ado…

Dagbladet: Sámi people encouraged to wear their gáktis inside out in protest of Kill Buljo

Wants to protest a movie that "fuels prejudices"

The Norwegian film Kill Buljo — which got a 2/6^[In Norway, it is common for media reviews to rate works from 1~6, rather than the 1~5 stars commonly used in the Anglosphere. This rating system is referred to as the work's "terningkast" (i.e. "dice roll") as the score is commonly represented with a die graphic (⚀, ⚁, ⚂, ⚃, ⚄, ⚅).] in yesterday's issue of Dagbladet — is a parody film that pokes fun at a number of ethnicities, professions, and film characters. However, not everyone is amused by the jokes: According to NRK Sámi Radio^[Referred to as "NRK Sameradioen" in the original text of this article, though I don't think this was ever the station's official name. The station's official name at the time this article was published was NRK Sámi Radio in Norwegian as well as in English. From Jan. 1, 2011, the station took on its current name of NRK Sápmi in both Norwegian and English. NRK Sápmi is in any case Norway's public broadcaster's official radio station aimed at Sámi people, often broadcasting in Sámi languages.], some people have reacted negatively to the filmmakers' depiction of Sámi people.^[Sámi people are the Indigenous people of the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland, and much of Murmansk Oblast in Russia.] Among those unamused by the film are Silja Somby, who works in the film industry.

—"I encourage all Sámi people who intend to see the film to wear their gáktis inside out.^[In English, gákti is used as a general term for all Sámi folk costumes, though more properly gákti refers specifically to the Northern Sámi style, with other Sámi communities having their own styles with their own names. In Norwegian, a gákti is called en kofte, and "to wear a gákti inside out" is "å vrenge kofta".] This is a traditional way for Sámi people to express their disapproval of something," she says to Dagbladet.

Tore down posters

Linda Øverli Nilsen, who plays Peggy Mathilassi in Kill Buljo, is herself from Guovdageaidnu^[Known in Norwegian as Kautokeino, Guovdageaidnu is one of the main centers of Sámi culture, particularly Northern Sámi culture. In the year 2000, ~96% of inhabitants of Guovdageaidnu Municipality could speak a Sámi language.] and has Sámi heritage.

—"Compared to the number of jokes about farmers in the movie, Sámi people really have it easy. If Sámi people have a reason to react negatively to this movie, then the farmers of Finnmark^[Finnmark is the northernmost county of Norway, and the county with the highest Sámi population.] should sue us for all we've got," Øverli Nilsen says to Dagbladet.

According to NRK, it's not just Somby who has reacted negatively to Kill Buljo. Several Sámi youths have reportedly torn down Kill Buljo posters in Guovdageaidnu, among other actions. Somby finds these actions understandable.

—"I have only seen the trailer, but if it's an accurate representation of the movie, then it's a movie that fuels old prejudices about Sámi people. It shows us as stupid, dirty alcoholics without any sort of moral compass. Øverli Nilsen cannot compare us to farmers. Do farmers experience any trouble from working Finnmark's fields? Sámi people are harassed every day for which language they speak and which clothes they wear," Somby says to Dagbladet.

Good PR

Actress Øverli Nilsen says that she gets a good laugh out of those who question how Sámi she really is.

—"I have to laugh at the people wondering if I'm an alibi for the filmmakers to justify hate speech against Sámi people. Critics haven't even seen the movie yet, and those who have seen it have only been satisfied with it, amused by it," she says.

Øverli Nilsen, who currently lives in Alta^[Alta is the biggest town in Finnmark County. The town is located in the county's northwest, at the southern end of the Alta Fjord.], believes that the controversy can be a source of good PR for the movie.

—"I'm going home to Guovdageaidnu next weekend, and I think I can count on people actually seeing the movie before they express their opinions on it. I don't think it'll be a problem at all," she says to Dagbladet.

Silja Somby also understands that her commentary is giving the movie free advertising.

—"But it's still important to make it clear that this isn't OK. This movie is really cultural pollution."

NRK: Sámi Skepticism to Kill Buljo

Today will see actions in Finnmark as Kill Buljo: The Movie premieres in Alta.

—"We tire of seeing characters wearing Four Winds hats^[Known in Northern Sámi as a čiehgahpir or sávká, this is the most iconic form of Sámi headwear, traditionally worn by men. Referred to as a samelue ("Sámi cap") in the original quote; other names in Norwegian are stjernelue ("star cap") or firevindslue ("four winds cap").] speak broken Norwegian as a cheap punchline," says Máret Ánne Sara.

Sara is the editor of the Sámi youth magazine Š.

Trend of making fun of Sámi people

The magazine Š has published an opinion piece about mockery of Sámi people, which uses Kill Buljo as a jumping-off point.

—"Is Kill Buljo a movie that makes fun of Sámi people?"

—"I have seen some clips where the protagonist, Jompa, wears a Four Winds hat and speaks broken Norwegian, so that's my impression, yes. That the movie follows the trend of making fun of Sámi people."

Northern Norwegian parody

In the summer of 2004, Tommy Wirkola and his friends made a short film called "Kill Buljo". They got the idea for the short film when they were in the local video rental store and started talking about how it would be fun to make a Northern Norwegian^[Northern Norway consists of the counties of Nordland, Troms, and Finnmark. Much of the region is north of the Arctic Circle and is very sparse. The entirety of Northern Norway is the bulk of Norway's share of Sápmi, the Sámi homeland. The history of Norwegian settler-colonialism is a huge part of the region's politics. In school I also learned about how back in the old days, apartments for rent in Oslo or whatever would sometimes say "no Northerners". I can't really say much about what discrimination against Northerners in 20th century South Norway actually was like but those "no Northerners" classifieds definitely have a place in Norway's popular imagination today, and speak to a deeper regional divide between the South and the North.] parody of Kill Bill. And so they met up to shoot the whole short film in one day, and edited it over the course of half an hour.

The short film was originally just an inside joke to show to a few friends of theirs. But the short film was eventually shown in Alta's local cinema and then published online. After the short film hit 10,000 downloads, Wirkola and friends decided to make the sequel Kill Buljo 2, which they filmed in two days, edited in one hour, and then posted to the Internet. Nettavisen.no^[Nettavisen launched in 1996 as Norway's first online-only newspaper. It remains one of Norway's most prominent news publications.] then hosted Kill Buljo 2 on its front page under the title of "Funniest Film of the Year", leading to 300,000 downloads. It was at this point that Wirkola and friends started discussing the idea of making a feature film out of the concept.

—"Watch the movie first"

—"It's a parody movie, very American in its style. We're very fond of The Naked Gun, Airplane!, that type of film. So Kill Buljo is American in its style but with Northern Norwegian characteristics," says director Tommy Wirkola.

—"Is this movie hate speech against Sámi people?"

—"It's fine to criticize us, but people should have to watch the movie first before criticizing us. That magazine [Š] has not done that: they're just assuming that we're making fun of Sámi people," Wirkola says. "The main character in the movie is Sámi and an idiot, but all the characters are idiots, that's the whole point! So if they [the critics] go and watch the movie, then they'll understand that it isn't making fun of Sámi people."

Kill Buljo will premiere at Alta's local cinema on March 21, 2007.