A young teacher, Eva Nygaard, arrives in Greenland from Denmark to surprise her fiance, the Doctor Erik Halsøe, but is crushed to find he has not waited for her and he is about to be married to his assisting nurse. Eva travels to a small fishing village to await the next ship back to Denmark. There she enters into a tense and often confrontational relationship with Jens, a quiet moody Dane who manages a trading company outpost. Meanwhile, Jens is trying to persuade a Greenlander named Pavia to become a company fisherman, despite Pavia’s fear of alienating his fellow villagers and upsetting the spirit, Qivitoq.
Director: Erik Balling.
Writer: Leck Fischer.
Stars: Poul Reichhardt, Astrid Villaume, Gunnar Lauring, Randi Michelsen, Bjørn Watt-Boolsen, Kirsten Rolffes, Niels Platou, Dorthe Reimer, Justus Larsen, Johanne Larsen, Edward Sivertsen.
1957 Academy Awards – Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
1957 Cannes Film Festival – Nominated for the Palme d’Or.
great movie. must see
Quite beautiful, unique milieu. Wonderfully photographed, with great performances from the leads and the local non-professional actors as well.
Another proof of rarefilmm’s contribution to world cinema heritage and its dissemination. What a film! Thank you, Jon!
This is a movie as unique and memorable as its name—the personal stories of a small group of people, told simply and without a lot of unnecessary melodrama, in a stunning locale. It has some of the most breathtaking color cinematography I have seen in any ‘50 film, and a genuinely suspenseful climax on a glacier, amazingly filmed with only a minimum of process shots. All in all, kind of stunning. Thanks for the chance to see it, Jon.
I can’t get this film to play. Has anyone else had problems with it?
Check now, Paul, I added a new streaming link.
Thanks.