With a total population of just over 56,000, the world’s largest island has a film festival of its own here in Berlin. Confronting clichéd notions of the mysterious isle as a cast away land of ice and Eskimos, Greenland Eyes International Film Festival presents a long list of native and international flicks exploring Greenlanders growing up (Inuk, Apr 30, Nuuk Nuann, Apr 28) and cities growing out (Hinnarik Sinnattunilu, Apr 29), postcolonialism, globalized pop culture and the traces of the Cold War (Echoes, Apr 26) on the island.
The festival’s film bill includes German-Greenlandic classics such as 1918’s silent, slapstick comedy Eskimo Baby, and Arnold Fanck’s 1933 SOS Iceberg, starring (strangely enough) a young Leni Riefenstahl, aka Hitler’s go-to girl for Nazi propaganda films. On top of that, there are also some fantastic contemporary efforts including Greenland’s first home-grown feature film, Nuummioq (Apr 25), as well as its most famous to date – Malik Kleist’s 2011 Quaqqat Alanngui.
Apr 28 is documentary day and most memorably features Sooqakersuttugut, Inuk Silis Høegh’s 2004 five-minute faux advertisement for Greenland’s non-existent army.
Greenlandic folk group Nive Nielsen & The Deer Children and a crowd of Berlin DJ’s, with the help of vats of Vodka made from 2000-year-old water from the Greenlandic ice cap, wrap this film reel up on Apr 30 at .HBC. The price of a festival pass for all seven days is a steal at €45, while tickets for individual screenings cost between €5 (students and trainees) and €6.50.
Greenland Eyes International Film Festival, Apr 24-30 | Kino Aresenal, www.greenlandeyes.com
