Through awesome remote Greenland

Through Greenland (Eric Engesgaard) is a five part documentary featuring Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) that will take you to a place you’ve probably always wondered about but was too awesome remote to explore further. (It premieres Thursday, Aug. 27 on Topic.)  Sure, nearby Iceland is the trendy spot in which to vacation – at least prior to Covid-19 – so will Greenland be next? Maybe this series will put that idea into people’s heads. The world’s largest island at 836,000 square miles is simply one of those places that seems so forbidding - three quarters of it is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica – that a documentary about it can be is irresistible. The first episode whets the appetite, starting in the remotest far northwest. Coster-Waldau and crew are on an initial two-stop tour. The first is to the Thule air base, 1200 km north of the Arctic Circle. Though governed by Demark the base might well have been in Kansas. Coster-Waldau is thoroughly disoriented finding bright eyed US twenty-somethings running one of the most critical missile tracking stations on Earth. But while he’s treated like royalty the film’s sub theme is about how the Americans and their Danish overlords brutally kicked out the townsfolk several decades ago. Given three days to pack their worldly belongings the folk in the town of Dundas - incidentally founded as a trading post by Canadians – had to trek three days to their new home of Qaanaaq. They had to sleep in tents during the brutal winter until their houses were built. The fact they had to evacuate into an even more remote part of the “Arctic desert” with few vital supplies is something Coster-Waldau, and you and I, might find “incomprehensible.” In Qaanaaq the actor meets Innuit and indulges in eating raw whale meat, a delicacy. Through Greenland will likely be fascinating, not just for Game of Thrones fans, but because, just like Coster-Waldau, for the first time we’re immersed in an environment we’ve never seen before. Besides watching Coster-Waldau’s interactions with the natives there is always the brooding vistas of the elongated blackened islands topped with snow, creating a serene remoteness. Nevertheless, it's still surprising that even in these austere conditions there is an underlying modernity, with villagers having wi-fi and flat screen TVs and Greenland settlements invariably linked by the country's very contemporary airline. It’s all a tableau that likely will pique the viewer’s interest for episodes to come.

(The original review erroneously was based on an understanding this film was one episode, and not five. I apologize for the error.)