Utuqaq

As four researchers embark on an expedition to drill ice cores in the Arctic in subzero temperatures, the presence of these visitors is witnessed by Utuqaq—ice that lasts year after year. With a memory that extends millions of years into the past and a present form that shapeshifts in intricate patterns over the surface of the vast white landscape, this beautiful and vital Arctic ice is facing an increasingly uncertain future as the world warms.

Narrated through the Kalaallisut language of West Greenland—a melodic language that holds an understanding of spirits and presences that roam the land—Utuqaq observes the scientists drilling into the ice and asks, “What do they want?”

In this extended meditation on the sentience of the land, the film de-centers the human perspective and rests in the deep and boundless silence of the ice.