a-ha - Lifelines

This video is based on the Norwegian short film A Year Along the Abandoned Road, directed by Morten Skallerud in 1991. Time lapse photography was used to make the video 50,000 times the normal speed; the original film was 12 minutes long and was filmed over 105 days, and edited to fit the song length and scenes with the band members.

The subject of the short film was Børfjord, a semi-deserted fisherman's village in Northern Norway.

The opening sequense features a poem written by King Olav V of Norway:

When I look back
I see the landscape
That I have walked through
But it is different
All the great trees are gone
It seems there are
Remnants of them
But it is the afterglow
Inside of you
Of all those you met
Who meant something in your life

Olav Rex
August 1977

A Year Along the Abandoned Road is a Norwegian short film from 1991 directed by Morten Skallerud. It was shot on 70 mm film and shows a whole year passing by in Norway's Børfjord in just 12 minutes. The camera was moved slightly each day, and so the film gives the viewer the impression of seamlessly travelling around the fjord as the year goes along, each day compressed into a few seconds. The film is traditionally the opening movie of the annual 70 mm film festival held at the Cinemateket film club in Oslo.

The film won the Norwegian Amandaprisen for best short film in 1991, and the Grand Prix at the Tampere Film Festival in 1992.

The band a-ha used footage from the film in the music video for their song "Lifelines".