Life on the Edge

Life on the Edge is an immersive film that is niche in its subject matter and milieu (the mental health crisis in Greenland) – universal in its themes and cinematic in scale. At its heart, it is a classic redemption journey about breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and reconnecting with ourselves, our communities and nature – something that is relevant to all of us.

The film is told from the perspective of Aqissiaq “Nuka” Semsen, a 30 year old Greenlandic Inuit with a troubled past who has dedicated himself to saving lives as a suicide prevention counsellor. We join Nuka as he travels to remote towns and villages scattered across the world’s largest island, giving counsel to those affected by suicide. 

We open in Qaanaaq, one of the world’s northernmost towns in the early summer as the sun wheels around the sky, never setting. Here he meets a grieving teenager with big ambitions who is struggling with painful emotions after losing friends and family. 

Then out onto the sea ice deep within the Arctic Circle,  where he joins an elderly hunter, who reminds him of the traditions that sustained the Inuit for millennia, even while struggling to confront the pain and the losses in his own life. The very stoicism that supports survival in the most extreme environment on Earth now threatens to become a conspiracy of silence around the problem of suicide.  

And finally to Greenland’s third largest city Ilulissat, where an embattled single mother living in a housing project overcomes alcohol abuse, domestic violence and loss, finding strength and resolve in her dedication to her young son and her determination to forgive. 

This story arc unfolds in tandem with Nuka’s harrowing, gripping and ultimately uplifting backstory, which is told via a stylised master interview, dreamlike reconstruction, surreal symbolism and sensory montages to bring his inner experience and memories vividly to life. Each narrative propels the other.

Ultimately, Nuka’s journey into the heart of the contemporary Greenlandic experience reminds us that the things we all risk losing are also the keys to our redemption: community, connection with nature, compassion and empathy for others. Flawed as he is, Nuka is driven by these things. Life on the Edge is a deeply moving and ultimately inspirational call to action, a reminder for all of us to reconnect – to ourselves, to each other and to nature.