WALLS – Akinni Inuk

The Greenlandic documentary WALLS – Akinni Inuk by Sofie Rørdam and Nina Paninnguaq-Skydsbjerg is an extraordinary journey in many ways. What began as a project in which inmates at a prison in Nuuk were given video cameras to record their own lives grew into a moving and essential story about love, hope, human empathy, and the struggle for a second chance. At the center of it all is Ruth Mikaelsen Jerimiassen, who has been in indefinite detention for twelve years—trapped in a legal no-man's-land between Greenland and Denmark. When Sofie Rørdam and Nina Paninnguaq-Skydsbjergen visit the prison for their film project, Ruth and Nina become friends. Through their intimate conversations, they discover a shared traumatic past and realize that they can help each other escape the chains of both prison and the past. The result is a powerful portrait that questions the meaning of freedom on both an individual and societal level and deals with heavy themes such as violence, justice, and colonialism without sensationalism.

WALLS – Akinni Inuk premiered this spring at the CPH:DOX festival in Copenhagen, where it won the NORDIC:DOX Award, and was subsequently screened at festivals in Toronto and Haugesund, among others. The film was nominated for the Nordic Council’s Film Prize and is the first Greenlandic documentary ever to be selected to represent the country at the 98th Academy Awards. WALLS – Akinni Inuk will have its Dutch premiere at the Noordelijk Film Festival. The screening on Saturday will be presented in collaboration with the Europeesk Buro foar Lytse Talen (EBLT), with Onno Falkena introducing the film.