Today’s “Around the World with Netflix” outing takes us to snowy, remote region we outsiders used to call Lapland (Sápmi, is preferred by the locals), that treeline on the edge of the tundra in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and a bit of Russia. It is the home of the Sámi peoples, traditional reindeer herders who have lived in this cold place for thousands of years.

That makes for a striking setting for “Stolen,” a seriously basic, if satisfying, thriller about the challenges this “outsider” group faces in the modern world. Adapted from a novel by  Sámi journalist and novelist Ann-Helen Laestadius, it comes to the screen as a somewhat violent melodrama in the “Witness” mold.

We meet the Sámi, a tiny population clinging to an almost prehistoric lifestyle in their traditional homeland. We see the beauty of the reindeer herds, galloping through the snow, meet a family from a small village, herding them with snowmobiles and griping about “changes” in the climate that make their lives harder.

And now there’s somebody killing reindeer and burning their feed.

An enthusiastic little girl, Elsa (Risten-Alida Siri Skum) gets her first reindeer, which she names and ear-marks and whispers the traditional Sámi incantation into that ear, “I don’t own you. I only have you on loan.” But shortly after that, she sees it have its throat slit by a local goon with a grudge against the Sámi. He makes a throat-slashing gesture to Elsa to keep her mouth shut. Which she does, even when she sees this creep in the station as her father (Magnus Kuhmunen) files yet another pointless police report.

No wonder the cops won’t do anything. Anybody who isn’t Sámi resents them, their government protections, their say over what happens to “their” grazing land.

So you’ve got a misunderstood and shunned outsider culture under deadly threat from a guy cozy with the cops. And a child is the only “Witness.”

But the Laestadius novel and the film adapted from it quickly shakes off any resemblence to the 1985 Peter Weir film as Elsa grows up to become a teacher ((Elin Oskal) in the village school. With her culture and family facing even more pressures — more attacks on their herds, more threats to their land, which may have iron ore beneath it — Elsa has grown up to be outspoken, unusual for a woman in this tradiational patriarchy.

Elsa has kept her secret about the animal-torturing and butchering Robert (Martin Wallström). Speaking out, badgering the cops, with her family seeing the threat and their own people shunning her warnings about it, something’s got to give.

The “basic” nature of of this thriller from first-time feature director Elle Márjá Eira stems from its many melodramatic touches. Multiple adults assure little Elsa (in Swedish and/or Sámi, with subtitles) “You know can tell me anything,” which of course means she won’t.

“Secrets have a tendency to grow and get too heavy to carry.”

There’s a grandma here to teach her just a little about her way of life and traditions. Those Northern Lights “are the stolen souls of the dead.” Maybe even reindeer souls.

Adult, mouthy Elsa will be tested, shunned, silenced and threatened. And yet she persists.

Yes, it’s a thriller with few new wrinkles to time-tested formulas. But the plot is within the realm of possibility and the perilous situations never quite stumble into “heroine tied to the railroad tracks” cliches, even though they come close.

And the setting, with samples of Sámi social life — funerals, costumes “for the tourists,” dancing and the like — makes a most exotic backdrop for a story with just enough suspense to get by.

Rating: TV-14, violence, alcohol abuse, suicide, adult situations, profanity

Cast: Elin Oskal, Lars-Ante Wasara, Pavva Pittja, Magnus Kuhmunen, Risten-Alida Siri Skum and Martin Wallström

Credits: Directed by Elle Márjá Eira, scripted by Peter Birro, based on a novel by Ann-Helen Laestadius. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:47