North Whale Island

Originaltitel: North Whale Island

64 Min. | 2026

Sprache: OV | Originalsprache: ohne Dialoge

Regie: Trond Ansten & Clemens Wilhelm

Two men arrive on a remote subarctic island with basic tools and a bag of salt. For three weeks they live only from what the sea offers and what the land allows to be taken. Without dialogue, the film observes long days with bright nights, shifting weather, and the quiet rhythm of work. What emerges is not simply a story of survival, but a silent ritual – life reduced to its essential gestures. What forgotten knowledge might still live in the movements of the hand? Gradually the island becomes a place where the boundary between human effort and the forces of nature slowly dissolves.

„A study of a person who knows how to exist in nature: watching Trond work is a portal to traditional knowledge about living a sustainable existence. After being dropped off by boat, the film was shot in complete isolation and only with solar energy: three weeks in total reality surrounded by the elements and forces of nature. The daily struggle for a balance between calories spent and calories earned was a humbling experience. My films are contemplative spaces where the viewers are given a rhythmic structure which guides a thought process. A state of selfless and timeless wonder is what I like.“

– Clemens Wilhelm

„I want to evoke a state of nature through the expedition. In Northern regions, people have always depended on what the sea, the land and the mountains provide. Our film exists in a state of tension, where the island becomes a place for rewilding our way of being in the world.The conversation between hands, tools and the elements opens a space for the imagination. It is a visual poem carried by work, bodily gestures and immersive soundscapes.“

– Trond Ansten