From pagan re-enactors to failed communes, black metal festivals to Arctic hermits, and the forever Golden Hour to the Northern Lights, A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness follows a nameless hero in an otherworldly search for a spiritual existence in a modern era.

Vital energies and elements interweave in Ben Rivers and Ben Russell’s many-textured tapestry of collaborative and contemplative filmmaking. Triangulating encounters with people, landscape, and metal music, this chameleonic travelogue offers up more than one dazzling defensive spell.