Heart of Light

Jacob Gronlykke's powerful new film would be worth a look simply based on the fact that it's the only film in recent memory from Greenland, a country most of us know absolutely nothing about, save that it's large and extremely cold. However, there's a lot more to recommend the movie than some unfamiliar scenery. It can't have been easy to do, but Heart of Light manages to tell a fairly culture-specific story while providing enough of a background and historical context to allow foreigners to understand, and thereby rises to the challenge of being a truly representative Greenlandic film. The film's protagonist, Rasmus (Rasmus Lyberth), a native Inuit struggling with tradition versus assimilation and modernization (via the dominant white, Danish culture), still thinks of himself as a hunter-gatherer, but is perceived by all around him as an impotent drunk. When his eldest and most loyal son shoots two innocent victims before committing violent suicide, Rasmus embarks upon a vision quest into the frozen wastes, hoping to redeem himself and his family line. Visions emerge, dark secrets are outed, and a mysterious hermit offers spiritual guidance, driving home the important distinction between recognizing one's limitations, failings, and oppressions and wallowing in them. Those who typically rail against "politically correct" films may be immune to some of the "New Agey-ness" inherent to any story about native people and spiritual visions. From any other perspective, however, Heart of Light does its country proud.