Village At The End Of The World Review

13th Apr 2013

A lovely film about a resilient, but tiny, fishing community in one of the most isolated places in the world.

Niaqornat is home to just 59 people and with their fishing factory closed it looks like more families are set to leave. The community rallies together to try and create a co-operative, making them self-sufficient and ensuring the villages survival. We’re also introduced to Lars, a teenager who looks longingly across the ice mainland, whose seemingly frivolous desire to leave (girls) masks a deeper reason to leave.

No part of village life is left to mystery with an inordinate amount of time spent on sewage collection. Those of a squeamish nature might find the hunting scenes difficult to watch, but it certainly is educational and if I fancy seal (animal not singer), I certainly know the best way to skin it and eat it now…

There are glimmers of an older way of life here, hunting, singing to the sun, but really the mundane realities of the world are here too. The economic crisis has reached all the way here too, with cutbacks in subsidies threatening their village and others like it. There are breathtaking shots of vistas, sunsets juxtaposed against school and the local shop.

The best sequence in the film is where a puffed up tourist form the mainland talks about the quaint Islanders and their mystical ancient ways, all the while cutting to the local teenagers with their hoodies, laptops and iPods. I think for me, this is what the film is about – that wherever we live, however extreme our environment; we are all the same – absent fathers, doting grandmothers and horny teenagers.