Director's notes

For many years, I have been very fascinated by Greenland and the Arctic, and the idea for this film emerged in 2011 when I was preparing for an icebreaker expedition. I had to film Danish scientists collecting scientific data to support the Danish claim on the North Pole (the sea floor of the Arctic Ocean). I was puzzled as to why the Danish Parliament had granted an amount in the triple-digit range to extend the Greenlandic territory, knowing that Greenland has set the course towards independence.

During an extended research and development phase, I have cast four young Greenlanders who represent the main currents within the independence debate in Greenland. I want to expose the enthusiasm, the power, and the creative energy of the Greenlandic youth - forces that the four characters represents so very well and a side of the country that we never really hear about in Denmark. It has been vital to me to gain the trust of the characters in order to tell the story from a Greenlandic perspective. Thus, I have spent long periods in Greenland – a total of eight months during a period of three years. Casting the characters, apart from finding charismatic personalities, it was important to me, that all the characters had an activist approach to their mission. Because only when words are turned into actual actions, our ideals and our dreams are challenged for real. 

Documentaries are often told from a single perspective, but in this film, I have tried to look from various perspectives at the highly polarized independence and identity debate in Greenland. The film does not side with any of the perspectives but is sympathetic to all the characters’ hopes and dreams. In other words, I care for and side with all the characters and leave it to the audience to make up their own minds.

All over the world, independence movements are gaining ground, and surely, The Fight for Greenland addresses this issue, but to me personally, this film is basically about what it takes to belong. My hope is that this film will help create the basis for a more nuanced dialogue between Greenland and Denmark and between the two sides of the independence debate.