A love letter to her Greenland home, Ivalo Frank’s stirring documentary explores the paradoxes of this beautiful and remote island. According to a groundbreaking study by geologist Minik Rosing, it is where life on Earth began, among the rock formations that have existed for nearly 4bn years. At the same time, the residents of Greenland are also bearing witness to what could be the first signs of our environmental annihilation, as the island’s icecap continues to melt at a terrifying speed under the effects of global heating.
The question of human survival is an overwhelmingly existential one. Frank’s film, however, also makes spaces for expressions of life both big and small. Intimate conversations with Greenlandic teenagers reveal their dreams for the future, as they look to find love, friendship and economic stability. Their aspirations are coloured by interviews with scientists, including Rosing, who discuss frankly the detrimental effects of human exploitation of the planet. Due to the neglect of previous generations, these youths will now inherit a much more inhospitable one.
While clear-eyed in its confrontation of the ongoing environmental collapse, the film is far from pessimistic. In between facts, figures and personal testimony, The Last Human is in awe of Greenland’s natural splendour. From the breathtaking sight of the morning mist wrapping around snow-capped mountain tops to the calm of sheep grazing a field, the beauty of these everyday occurrences is also pregnant with fragility. Positioning Greenland as a space between the beginning and the end of the human race is more than a weighty statement; it is a call to action, as Frank’s emphasis on the precious minutiae of life powerfully foregrounds the simple pleasures that are at risk of extinction.
• The Last Human is on True Story from 9 August.
