Larsen, an aspiring poet in '20s Oslo, leaves his girlfriend to spend a year as a trapper in East Greenland. There he is teamed with a seemingly rough old sailor/trapper, Randbæk, and a scientist, Holm. Trapped in a tiny hut together as the Arctic winter sets in, a complex and intense love/hate relationship develops between Randbæk and Larsen, who are more similar than either would like to admit. A powerful psychological and physical drama set against stunningly bleak Arctic scenery.
Acting
Skarsgård's volcanic restraint — terrifying and pathetic simultaneously
Cinematography
Greenland's white void as fourth character
Direction
Moland's slow squeeze until you can't breathe
Director
Hans Petter Moland
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Molten's camera froze multiple times; crew used body heat to restart equipment at -40°C.
Adapted from a Danish novella that was itself based on real 1920s trapper diaries — the era's masculine ideal curdling in isolation.
NO
