Greenland, the world’s largest island, is an ice-bound, treeless expanse of raw grandeur and timeless beauty. Although it has been inhabited for about 1,000 years, it’s still sparsely populated, and much of its vast, forbidding terrain remains unexplored.
In Expedition to the End of the World, a Danish documentary now playing at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema on Dec. 27, a team of scientists plumb its mysterious depths.
Daniel Dencik’s film eschews history and concentrates on the natural wonders of Greenland, which is administered by Denmark.
The scientists, accompanied by a photographer and an artist, arrive in Greenland by ship. They’re aboard a graceful wooden schooner, which cruises along placid fjords and crashes through thick ice packs as it penetrates the interior of the uninhabited northern part of the island.
The vistas are spectacular. From the deck of the ship, the passengers see ice floes and icebergs, standing in awe of their surroundings. But they are not here as tourists. They have work to do.
They take samples from the oldest rock formations on earth. They drill into permafrost, which, they claim, is gradually melting. They discover a new aquatic species. They look for polar bears and see none, until they spy one bear trying to break into an isolated hut. They come upon signs of ancient human habitation.
As the movie unfolds, its stunning cinematography and eclectic musical score riveting a viewer, two of the explorers skinny dip in a shallow lake, enjoying a few moments of relaxation. It’s virtually the only note of levity in an otherwise earnest film.
Still others discuss the implications of climate change, and one man, rather ominously, says, “Humans are changing the environment faster than they can adapt to it.”
Food for thought.
Another discussion is set off when they pass a vessel exploring for oil and gas. Should the island’s resources be exploited for the economic benefit of its residents? Or should Greenland remain pristine and unspoiled? Similar debates are raging elsewhere, of course.
Not surprisingly, the scientists launch into a philosophical debate about the meaning of life when their ship becomes trapped in the jaws of the ice.
Expedition to the End of the World takes you to a place you’ll probably never visit and leaves you with memorable impressions.