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Column: Arctic Horror on the Big Screen

Liisa Holmberg
Photo: Ulla Isotalo

By Liisa Holmberg

Traditional stories are considered to always serve a purpose. They can teach a lesson or save you from something. They can carry age-old beliefs and customs. And stories also have to be believable and entertaining. My childhood was full of them. I was especially intrigued and terrified by stories of the supernatural. And sometimes, the stories became all too alive.

This happened a long time ago at my grandma's house. It was a dark autumn evening, and just me and my grandma there at the house. My grandpa had passed away in the summer. Suddenly, we heard someone enter the screened porch and start walking towards the living room door. But then the steps turned to the stairs leading up to the attic. Through the window in the door, we caught a glimpse of a dark hooded figure, with nothing but black where its face should have been. I took real fright, but my grandma didn't turn a hair. She listened for a while, waiting if it came back down. The attic was an open space, cold and dark, with nothing special up there. When the walker didn't return, my grandma reached for a flashlight and decided to go check. I was too afraid to stay behind all by myself, so I followed her and teetered up to the attic on the steep stairs, lit only by the dim and faltering beam of her flashlight. We listened carefully, but saw absolutely nothing. “Who are you?” my grandma asked in the Sámi language. No response. Absolutely petrified with terror, I staggered back downstairs to the comforting light of the living room.

I asked my grandma what it was. She told me it was not a living thing. As if that was a proper, comprehensive answer to her small grandchild. But then she added that it wasn’t quite dead either. EEEEK. I slept as close to my grandma that night as I possibly could.

Nearly forty years later, on a Sunday morning at the Skábmagovat film festival, I sat in an auditorium skeptically watching a Greenlandic horror movie. I didn't think I would find it that credible. But when a dark hooded figure with no face turned up on the screen, I could feel myself trying to escape through my seat. Qivittoq. A Greenlandic being possessed by evil forces. Not a living thing, but not quite dead either. Suddenly I believed in every scene of the movie and returned to my childhood.

I remembered the cold attic and the eerie silence. My grandma in her head scarf, braving supernatural forces, armed with only a faltering flashlight. I still don't know if I gained any great wisdom or lesson from that. Perhaps that our stories are real; there's no need to make them up. You can just let yourself believe and wonder. And pass the stories on.

Originally published in the newspaper Lapin Kansa on March 5, 2019; translated and reprinted with permission

Table of Contents

  1. Letter from the President

    By Lars Kullerud

  2. Editorial

    By Outi Snellman

  3. New Realities for the Arctic: the Importance of Regional and Circumpolar Cooperation

    By Paula Lehtomäki

  4. Reconciliation and Education

    By Tosh Southwick

  5. What Impact Do We Seek by Funding UArctic?

    By Stine Djørup

  6. Establishing West Nordic Studies in the Land of Maybe

    By Lau Øfjord Blaxekjær

  7. Living in the Landscape

    By Irina Zemtsova

  8. New Alliances – While the Ice Is Melting. Interview with Guest Professor Lotten Gustafsson Reinius

    By Elisabet Idermark

  9. Creating Impact Through Collaboration Between Different Levels of Actors: Developing Arctic Maritime Safety Cooperation

    By Johanna Terva, Saila Heinikoski, Sari Lindblom, Päivi Mattila and Pasi Hario

  10. UArctic Annual Report for 2018

  11. Mon Projet Nordique / My Northern Project – Competition for PhD Students from Québec and the Nordics

    By Brigitte Bigué and Hélène Munger

  12. My Northern Project

    By Kirill Gurvich

  13. Northern Governance: Old Ideas, New Challenges

    By Gary N. Wilson

  14. Mobility Matters: Perspectives from Northern Tourism

    By Patrick Maher

  15. The Arctic as a Commercial Food Producing Region

    By David Natcher et al

  16. Arctic Indigenous Films in the Spotlight

    By Liisa Holmberg

  17. Philosophical Perspectives to Arctic Sustainable Development and the Role of Universities

    By Mauri Ylä-Kotola

  18. Education and Training Needs for Arctic Indigenous Peoples: Outcomes of the Permanent Participant Panel at UArctic Congress 2018

    By Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat

  19. Modeling Inclusion and Gender Equality: Our UArctic Opportunity

    By Melody Brown Burkins

  20. Making Gender Equality Plan A in the Arctic

    By Malgorzata (Gosia) Smieszek and Tahnee Prior

  21. Student Profiles

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