Norsk filminstitutt

Documentary film Winter's Yearning
(Vinterens lengsel)


Greenland (56.000 inhabitants) is dreaming of independence from Denmark. As Arctic’s glaciers are melting, great possibilities of sustainable energy are facilitated, and in 2006 the American aluminium company ALCOA decides to build their next aluminium plant in Greenland. The massive billion dollars’ project is warmly welcomed. It is the opportunity for Greenland to finally become financially independent.   

The small, isolated fishing town Maniitsoq (2500 inhabitants), on the West Coast of Greenland, is chosen as location for the huge aluminium plant.    

The film zooms in on Maniitsoq as the years passes and the local inhabitants are put on hold - waiting for the American Dream. Through dark and cold winters the film explores human existentialism and the relation between personal self-reliance and a nations independence. When we finally arrive at the summer light, a promising revelation arises from deep beneath the ocean’s surface. It is a visually ambitious film about dreams, hopes and lives on hold, and the human capacity to rise again.   

Production and distribution

Production Year:
2019
Production country:
Norway
Co production country:
Greenland
Denmark
Release date (national):
2019-01-15
Production company:
Blåst Film AS
Co production company:
Bullitt Film Aps
Ánorâk Film I/S
Producer:
Sturla Pilskog
Are Pilskog
Co producer:
Vibeke Vogel
Emile Hertling Péronard
Sales agent:
CAT&Docs

Director

  • Sidse Torstholm Larsen

    Sidse Torstholm Larsen (b.1981) graduated with a thesis and a film, Living on the Ice, on a halibut fishing community in Ilulissat, Greenland. Sidse has studied Inuit Culture in Greenland and has since directed the short film “Alianaak” about a Greenlandic football team in Copenhagen. Sidse lives in Copenhagen and has the latest years also worked as an editor at the Danish pubcaster DR. 

    Torsthold Larsen also has a Master degree in Visual Anthropology from the University of Tromsø. Winter’s Yearning is her feature film debut.  

  • Sturla Pilskog

    Sturla Pilskog (b.1981) latest film is Ice Handscape, a documentary short film co-directed with Are Pilskog, about Norwegian Seal Hunters in the Arctic. Pilskog and Torstholm Larsen co-directed a film about young immigrants in Oslo getting to know Norway by hunting in the Norwegian nature (Jakten på det nye Norge, NRK 2011). Their films tend to deal with people and relations to their environment. 

    Pilskog also has a Master degree in Visual Anthropology from the University of Tromsø. Winter’s Yearning is his feature film debut.  

    Sturla Pilskog

Festivals

2019:
TIFF - Tromsø International Film Festival
2019:
CPH:DOX
2019:
Moscow International Film Festival
2019:
DOXA Documentary Film Festival
2019:
Open City Documentary Festival
2019:
Duhok International Film Festival
2019:
Nordisk Panorama
2019:
Margaret Mead Film Festival
2019:
Nordic Film Days Lübeck
2020:
Mother Tongue Film Festival
2020:
Human International Documentary Film Festival
2020:
FINCA - Festival Internacional de Cine Ambiental

Crew

Director:
Sidse Torstholm Larsen
Sturla Pilskog
Screenplay:
Sidse Torstholm Larsen
Sturla Pilskog
Cinematographer:
Henrik Bohn Ipsen
Editor:
Åsa Mossberg
Composer:
Sebastian Öberg
Sound engineer:
Niels Arild

Technical information

Format:
DCP 4k
Screen ratio:
1:2,39
Colour:
Colour
Sound format:
Stereo 5.1
Length in min's:
75'
Subtitles:
English

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