In an alley on this warm spring evening, a red carpet has been laid out in front of the Grand Theatre in Copenhagen. On the wall of the old cinema hang dozens of colorful movie posters with the evening's premiere performance Fire, Water, Earth, Air.
Every year, documentaries are launched all over the city at the renowned documentary film festival CPH:DOX.
Inside the cinema hall, the red velvet seats are filled with moviegoers of all ages. The conversation is lively in both Faroese, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. Several of the people who are in tonight's film are in the audience, including the former Faroese Minister of the Environment Ingilín Didriksen Strøm.
The red velvet curtain is pulled aside and the cinema screen comes into view.
The film Fire, Water, Earth, Air, inspired by a Nordic research project is launched.
Watch the movie trailer here: FIRE WATER EARTH AIR_TRAILER_LONG_UK_H264 | Videos & Movies on Vimeo
Neighbourhood is the most important climate preparedness
The film starts by taking us to the windswept islands of the Faroe Islands. Here we meet the Minister of the Environment, who is fighting to get the climate on the political agenda. We meet the emergency manager on the small island of Skarø in Denmark, which is becoming increasingly flooded, and we come to Sweden, where researchers are investigating forest fires, which are becoming increasingly frequent. In Norway, we meet a grandfather who is hiking with his two grandchildren and sees with his own eyes the changes in nature.
Throughout the film, we meet people of different ages and with different conditions who are confronted with the impact of climate change on their communities. And the most important preparedness turns out to be the neighbourhood. Those who live right next door and the community we share across the Nordic region.
Research project is the inspiration for film
In the cinema hall, the film is over, and applause fills the old hall.
The four Nordic directors are invited up on stage for a conversation about the film.
Phie Ambo from Denmark, Rogvi Rasmussen from the Faroe Islands, Janne Lindgren from Norway and Ewa Cederstam from Sweden.
Tonight is the first time the four directors meet each other in real life. Part of the film's concept has been to limit the climate footprint and avoid travel across countries. Therefore, each director has been responsible for the filming in his or her respective country.
The inspiration for the film came from a NordForsk-funded research project.
"Rico Kongsager invited me to make a film about his research project CliCNord, which is about how small communities in the Nordic region deal with climate change. I used the idea from the research project to investigate four elements, fire, water, earth and air, and let that be the visual concept for the entire film. For me, it has been interesting to explore how people in the Nordic Region live in these changing times without becoming too depressed about the effects of climate change," says the film's main director Phie Ambo and adds:
"We want to show that it is possible to change the world for the positive if we are more humble, instead of thinking that we can control the elements of nature."
The film will soon premiere in Danish cinemas, and later it will be shown on the state-funded TV channels in the Nordic countries – DR, NRK, SVT and Yle.
