The Fundy Film Society

Ekspeditionen til verdens ends (The Expedition to the End of the World)

Ekspeditionen til verdens ende (The Expedition To The End Of The World)

In the summer of 2011, the three-masted schooner Activ sets sail for Northeast Greenland, one of the most majestic and inhospitable places on the planet. Aboard is a Danish crew of adventurous scientists, artists and philosophers. They embark on an epic journey to a landscape that has not been walked by humankind since prehistoric times; new species are discovered, polar bears are a constant threat, and glacial icebergs are collapsing in real time. The viewer has the eerie sense of trespassing on something unpolluted, unpopulated and somehow sacred. But in their encounter with new, unknown parts of the world, the crew also confronts the existential questions of life.

Producer Michael Haslund was invited to join and document the expedition. Director Daniel Dencik turned the material into a feature film. Curiosity, grand pathos and a liberating dose of humour come together in his superbly orchestrated film where one iconic image after the other seduces us far beyond the historical footnote that is humanity. A film conceived and brought to life on a grand scale—a long forgotten childhood dream lived out by grown artists and scientists.

The Expedition to the End of World, is a snapshot representing the filmmakers’ use of this unusual opportunity, not a document of the participating artists and scientists or their projects. The film offers a pure exploration of the worlds of nature, science and art.

“Visually ravishing, thought-provoking and benefitting from just enough playfulness to set it apart from the nature-doc herd, the film is eco-relevant without being at all dominated by climate change, which is only one of many subjects discussed.” (John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter)

“With Mozart’s Requiem a perfectly ironic choice of opening motif, Expedition to the End of World takes viewers on a journey that only incipient human extinction might have made possible. With a mood and setting worthy of a murder story by Jack London, this audience-friendly, atmospheric work could be remade as a thriller, although that’s really what it is already.” (John Anderson, Variety)