16/07/2012 - A success at Sundance and other international festivals, the first professional feature film production from Greenland has been seen by 4,500 locals

When Danish-Greenlandic director Otto Rosing’s Nuummioq was launched to critical success at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, it was seen as the kick-off to an emerging film industry in Greenland (the world’s largest island - 2.2 million sq km, 57,000 population – an autonomous country within Denmark, between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans).

But, so far, the first professional feature film production from Greenland has only been released domestically (premiered at Nuuk’s Katuaq cinema, November 2009) and seen by 4,500 locals, and it will play its main role in court, after Rosing has reported producer Mikisoq H. Lynge to the police for embezzlement. Danish film magazine Ekko has followed the story.

After Sundance, Nuummioq toured festivals in Germany, Iceland, Canada, Turkey, UK, Spain, the Czech Republic, and it became Greenland’s first Oscar candidate. UK distributor The Works was ready to sign a €100,000 contract to represent the film worldwide (outside the US, Denmark), but since chain-of-rights was not cleared after eight months, the deal was cancelled.

Shot during 28 days in August 2008, with Rosing’s brother Lars Rosing and Danish-Greenlandic singer-acress Julie Berthelsen in the leads, the film follows a construction worker in Nuuk, who falls head-over-heels in love, then is diagnosed with incurable cancer.Should he go to Denmark for treatment and probably extend his life a few years, or should he stay and die?

Lynge sold a 49% share of his production company, 3900 Films, to stage the €600,000 feature - partly financed through deferments - which ran into problems when Rosing was hit by depression, and scriptwriter Torben Bech was brought in to finish the film. The outfit has since gone bankrupt leaving €250,000 debts, including unpaid salaries for cast and crew.