Kalak

• Isabella Eklöf
• 121 min
• Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Greenland
• 2023
• Fiction

Isabella Eklöf (Holiday, GFF 2018) solidifies her position as one of the most exciting directors in the Nordic region with a powerful drama based on an acclaimed autobiographical novel.

Danish Jan is on the run from himself and his traumatic upbringing. Now he lives with his wife and children in Nuuk, Greenland, where he works as a nurse and does his best to become a part of the collectivist Greenlandic culture - to become a so-called 'Kalak'. When a letter from his dying father suddenly arrives in the mailbox, his past catches up with him. Jan becomes an increasingly absent father and escapes into a haze of alcohol and sex. Emil Johnsen is captivating in the lead role as Jan, simultaneously boyishly fragile and deeply unsettling, while Asta Kamma August (also in the spotlight at the festival with Hypnosen) impresses in the role of Jan's neglected wife. An incredible Greenlandic cast, with Berda Larsen shining brightly as Jan's lover Karina, brings to life a society filled with both love and colonial conflict. Isabella Eklöf doesn't shy away from either human darkness or difficult subjects as she follows up on her award-winning debut.

- Annie Karlsson

• Drama
• Adaption
• Omskakande
• Relationer
• Samhälle