A British-Norwegian couple who went off-grid with their family in the wilderness before suffering a tragedy have been featured in a moving new documentary.
Nik and Maria Payne lived an isolated life with their four children, home-schooling them in a self-sufficient house in a forest in Norway where they lived off the land.
They had no television in their property on a small farm – with the children instead encouraged to chop wood with an axe, raise animals and sell them for pocket money.
But Maria died of cancer aged 41 in 2019 – leaving Nik as a single parent to Ulv, three, Falk, six, Freja, nine, and Ronja, 15, Maria’s daughter from a previous relationship.
Now, their extraordinary life is being featured in an award-winning new documentary film called ‘A New Kind of Wilderness‘ which is coming to UK cinemas from May 16.
Nik, who grew up on a dairy farm in Chester and met Maria in Portugal while working as a flying instructor, told The Sunday Times: ‘It hasn’t been a smooth journey.’
He added: ‘The most important point of our lifestyle was to work less for money. We wanted to spend more time on the important things: being with the kids, not sending them off to school but to have them at home and all be together.
‘I had an agricultural background so we did it on a farm, but it could have happened in a suburban house, growing vegetables in the garden. We wanted less of a disposable income to spend on disposable things.’
Nik and Maria Payne lived an isolated life with their four children in the Norwegian wilderness
Nik grew up on a dairy farm in Chester and met his wife while working as a flying instructor
The isolated property in Norway where Nik and Maria Payne moved to had no television
The children were encouraged to chop wood and raise animals and sell them for pocket money
The 84-minute movie by director Silje Evensmo Jacobsen has already won awards at the Sundance Film Festival, Seattle Film Festival and Budapest Film Festival.
The family began living in the countryside in Norway when Ronja was aged four, buying a smallholding – and Freja was then born a year after Nik made the move.
The family generated income through Maria teaching photography and film-making. She also started a blog about their life, while Nik managed the farm and grew food.
The family’s involvement with Jacobsen goes back to 2014 when she came across Maria’s blog about their unusual lifestyle – and a pilot film was made about their life.
It was never picked up by any broadcasters, but Jacobsen got back in touch with Nik after Maria’s death – and Nik agreed for a new film to be made.
The documentary looks at how Nik tries to continue a self-sufficient lifestyle for the family
The new documentary film ‘A New Kind of Wilderness’ is coming to UK cinemas from May 16
The family lived off the land at a self-sufficient home in a forest in Norweigan woodland
He told the Guardian: ‘For me, it was a completely unnatural thing. Maria was more extroverted, more into film-making, and had wanted to start this project.
‘In her blog, she shared everything about our lives – the good stuff but also the hard stuff, including her own illness. She was very honest, so I decided to go for it as a kind of legacy for her. Maybe it will help someone out there.’
The documentary looks at how Nik tries to continue a self-sufficient lifestyle for the family after Maria’s death by growing food, cooking and teaching the children.
But in the end he became overwhelmed and decided to send them to mainstream school, admitting: ‘It’s a continuous feeling of defeat or disappointment.
‘They really did enjoy the home schooling and they would have liked to continue. I had hoped that I could give them that, but I couldn’t see a way to do it.’
The movie by director Silje Evensmo Jacobsen won an award at the Sundance Film Festival
Nik said the family still light a candle before each meal and hold hands to remember Maria
Maria died of cancer aged 41 in 2019 – leaving Nik as a single parent to Ulv, three, Falk, six, Freja, nine, and Ronja, 15, Maria’s daughter from a previous relationship
He added that he had some counselling while Maria was dying but this stopped and he became his own therapist after she talked about ‘doing the inner work’.
Nik also spoke about his fear of exposing the children when talking about grief, although praised the director for becoming a ‘friend I could talk to off camera’.
He said the family still light a candle before each meal and hold hands to remember Maria, but admitted watching the film together with his children was too emotional.
Nik also said Freja is getting good grades at secondary school, ‘even though most of it is boring and meaningless’ – but he is considering home schooling the boys again.
He explained: ‘I can home school them in the forest, where they will do some reading and maths and then go and do something practical.’
A New Kind of Wilderness is out in UK cinemas from May 16
