The Andersson family, 16 strong, are sole inhabitants of “Solitude,” a remote hamlet in northerly Sweden. Perhaps their isolation and their tribal quality have led them all to adopt a strange family sport – arm-wrestling. Beautiful and intense Heidi trains hard and competes in international competitions (she has won 5 gold medals to date making her world champion), but it is clearly not a spectator sport! It’s all about “high grip,” “low grip,” and “going over,” and once the referee is satisfied with the firm interlocking of hands, even strapping them together if needed, it’s all over in a flash.

Heidi’s model father/trainer Kent goes with Heidi to compete in Canada, and there her supremacy is threatened for the first time by a small Russian competitor. One wonders what retired arm-wrestlers do? Later, they are more eager than ever to return from hotel-land to their idyllic “Solitude.”

Such impressive openness, warmth and commitment to family and ancestral lands transforms this potentially banal subject into a satisfying human story.