WeShort Original Anngeerdardardor (The Thief) was selected for the 75th Berlin International Film Festival in the Generation Kplus competition, where it electrified audiences with its fresh voice and raw emotional immediacy. Winner of the Best Danish Fiction Award at Odense International Film Festival 2025, the film is now Oscar-qualified—an extraordinary feat for the first short ever produced in East Greenland.
Born from true events in the remote East Greenlandic town of Tasiilaq, the film features non-professional Greenlandic actors and improvised dialogue, including a young performer from special education whose quiet intensity anchors the story. The result is a vivid portrait of adolescence at the edge of the world, told by a community rarely seen on screen.
When Kaali discovers that his beloved sled dog has disappeared, his search ignites a chain reaction through Tasiilaq’s close-knit community. Navigating bullies and isolation, he sprints toward confrontation. In a place where belonging is everything, losing your only friend can break everything.
Director Christoffer Rizvanovic Stenbakken sought to create a film that felt genuinely Greenlandic—not a foreign script merely set in Greenland, but one grounded in real experiences and local performances. The film resonates with the universal truth of what it means to be different, wherever you are in the world.
Raised in East Greenland and now based in Copenhagen, Stenbakken works across film and television with a signature naturalism—observational, character-driven, and quietly unsentimental. His acclaimed 2022 DR podcast Tilbage til Tasiilaq documented a return to his birthplace and helped ignite a new appetite for East Greenlandic narratives. He is currently developing a feature film also set in East Greenland.
Anngeerdardardor (The Thief) is distributed globally by WeShort, the streaming, distribution, and production platform shaping the international appetite for premium short-form cinema. Available worldwide on WeShort.com and via its iOS and Android apps, WeShort has reached over 1.5 million viewers and continues to integrate short films into daily viewing culture.
The film is supported by SunTower Entertainment Group, Focus Movie Academy, NAPA – The Nordic Institute in Greenland, NunaFonden, Sermeq Fonden, Sermersooq Kommune, Air Greenland, and Kraemers Grønlandsfond.
Starring Kamillo Ignatuussen as Kaali, Mikkel Paalu P. Bianco as Bartilaa, and Simujooq Ikila, the film was produced by Asbjørn H. Kelstrup, shot by Philip Peng Rosenthal, and edited by Laura Skiöld Østerud, with sound design and original music by Becca Reyes. Casting was led by Alberte Parnuuna, with line production by Carl Artaartík Taunajik, Florian Sørensen, and Alberte Parnuuna. Maria Møller Christoffersen serves as executive producer, with Michael Noer as creative producer.
For Greenlandic-funded cinema, Anngeerdardardor (The Thief) represents a thrilling shift—one driven by local youth, regional funding, and uncompromising authenticity. It signals a future where remote voices are no longer peripheral, but headline-worthy.
★★★★ (4/5)
Margaret Brown
