FESTIVALS: * CPH:DOX (Copenhagen, Denmark) * Moscow International Film Festival (Russia) * DOXA Documentary Film Festival (Vancouver, BC, Canada) * Valetta Film Festival * Duhok * Open City Docs * Nordisk Panorama * Reykjavik * Margaret Mead * Nordic Film Days Lübeck * Una Finestra sul Nord * Mother Tongue Film Festival | Winter’s Yearning
The American aluminium company ALCOA decides to build an aluminium plant in Greenland. The massive billion dollars’ project is warmly welcomed as it is the opportunity for Greenland (56.000 inhabitants) to finally become financially independent from Denmark. The small and isolated town Maniitsoq is chosen as location for the aluminium plant. But years pass by and the local inhabitants are falling into a state of waiting for ALCOA. In the shadow of the ALCOA project the film explores human existentialism and the relation between personal self-reliance and a nations independence. Kirsten is the teenager with whom we experience life in Maniitsoq as it is, working at the local fish factory. She dreams about a different kind of life, but it’s hard to break with her heavy social legacy. Peter is the first Greenlander to obtain a master’s degree from the University of Greenland, and through the ALCOA project he has great dreams for his homeland. However, as the town’s appointed Aluminium Coordinator, Peter ends up struggling with broken dreams. Gideon stands out working to heal a population with deep scars on its soul. His own past has been anything but easy, but his philosophy is that everyone must stop waiting for salvation from the outside and rather look in the mirror to overcome one’s guilt and shame – only then can one become independent. “Winter’s Yearning” is a cinematic film about dreams, hopes, lives on hold, and the human capacity to rise again. 
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