"What the hell am I doing here? Why was I determined to take this on? There’s nothing else out there, other than whiteness, never ending, everywhere I look." An astonishing if not dangerous adventure full of twists and turns is the focus of Belgian director Jérémie Rénier’s second feature film, the documentary D’un monde à l’autre, which was screened in the premieres section of the 17th Les Arcs Film Festival. It’s a film born out of great sorrow ("death trickled its way into my veins and reached as far as my heart") caused by the accidental death of his best friend, Gaspard Ulliel, in 2022, and the severe depression he subsequently experienced, until his unlikely encounter with explorer Loury Lag who suggested Jérémie accompany and film him on the final stretch of a polar challenge: covering 3,400km in the Arctic on frozen ocean.

"At -60°, if you make a mistake or a bad choice, you’re dead." It’s to the tune of this warning that the director finds himself catapulted into Prudhoe Bay (USA) where his subject is busying himself with final vital preparations for the journey ahead: gloves, tent, snow kite, sled, safety device and rifle in case of bears, distress beacon, GPS, weather forecast study, plans for dodging local authorities (because these kinds of projects aren’t allowed)… "What a mad idea to be here, following a guy I hardly know", the filmmaker notes in his travel journal (read in a voiceover). Desperate to connect with something bigger than himself, in the mystical faith that it’s his deceased friend who’s led him here for good reason, Jérémie Rénier gets to know his adventurer companion. And when Loury begins his expedition alone and the director takes a small plane to wait for him at the next stage in the journey, a few uncomfortable truths emerge over the organisation of the expedition. After a confrontational moment in Inuvik (Canada), the two men nonetheless set off across the ice together, "across this water-filled desert immobilised by the frost: it was the promise of a journey." In "the most hostile place in the world", the filmmaker pursues his intimate quest and enters into another dimension, a "tragically beautiful" and "almost toxic" universe where he invests a great deal of energy trying to overcome his deep-seated unhappiness and to reconnect with the world…

Both an initiatory tale about one man’s attempt to heal his spirit and an ultra-physical adventure film in an extreme climate, the documentary reveals the filmmaker’s unvarnished introspection, the portrait of an explorer full of contradictions, and the intense relationship which unfolds (despite a few hiccups) between them. With highly effective cinematography (Fabien Ruyssen) and music (Pierre Aviat and Loup Mormont), D’un monde à l’autre poignantly tackles some very human themes, bringing them to life as accurately as possible: weaknesses and strengths, the difficulty of ridding ourselves of doubts, the crushing weight of bad memories and the blind desire to overcome them to find serenity. All this in a natural landscape which does the protagonists no favours and which forces them to focus on the essential: "if looking back makes you sad and looking forwards worries you, try looking by your side."

D’un monde à l’autre was produced by Chi-Fou Mi and Vixens.