Feature documentary, 2026
The Hunter from Greenland tells the story of Hjelmer Hammeken, a hunter who has lived his life in one of the most remote villages in the world. Ittoqqortoormiit in Scoresby Sound, part of the most extensive fjord system on Earth. A story of a relationship between people and nature that is moving through a period of change.
Photographer Ragnar Axelsson has followed Hjelmer for 35 years, documenting his life, family, and hunting. Together, they have travelled the sea ice, survived storms, and watched the community slowly disappear. The film paints a portrait of one of the last polar-bear hunters of our time and of a community facing the prospect of vanishing.
In recent decades, the population of the villages around Scoresby Sound has dropped by half. Cape Hope and Cape Tobin are now abandoned. Storms and cold have taken over. Houses disappear one by one. With them, stories, traditions, and a way of life rooted in a thousand years of knowledge and sustainability are being lost.
Hjelmer misses the Greenland of the past, when the sea ice was thick and safe. He does not know where the future will lead, but he keeps hunting as long as his strength holds. He knows no other life.
