Film Commission Torino Piemonte

Thirty years ago, Robert, with a past as an extreme mountain climber and explorer, abruptly gives everything up to move to eastern Greenland. This is the home of the Ivi, a population condemned to extinction by an unintended consequence: in the 1970s, Greenpeace, after prolonged activism, put an end to the terrible slaughter of seal pups. But in so doing, it deprived this age-old civilization of its only form of economic sustenance: the hunt. In response, the Danish government allocated abundant economic resources over the years to provide a future for these people. But it did so by exporting Western economic and tourism models, which are leading to the total disappearance of local traditions. For their part, the Ivi have responded with the attitude of passive victims, offering no reaction, accepting anything, and waiting for something to happen. In recent years, all this has led to increased rates of alcoholism, depression, and suicide. Joining this story, in which everyone seems to have worked towards the good yet in which everyone seems to have failed, is the figure of Robert, who, in Tasiilaq, founded the “Red House,” a hotel/refuge providing work for locals who have been left with nothing. What brought him to Greenland to take up the cause of the Ivi? Something emerging from his past better explains his motivations, allowing us to understand that what he is trying to do, is to turn back and to “give back”, in an act of humility. “The red house” challenges us to look beyond the good and the evil, and leads us to think about the conflict between the motivations and the consequences of our actions. The documentary considers Greenland’s situation as a paradigm, analyzing the conflict between motivations and consequences, and proposing a way to ponder over the meaning of turning back – and giving back.