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Tupilak

For 500 years, the Norse Greenlanders made their home in the wilderness. In 1450, they disappeared without a trace.

  • Andrew Hall
    Director
    The Beachcomber
  • Lily Taylor
    Key Cast
    "Saga"
    The Beachcomber
  • Alex Newton
    Key Cast
    "Dirk"
  • Ashley Hughes
    DP and Editor
    The Beachcomber
  • Jordan Dobbins
    Composer
    The Beachcomber
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    16 minutes 45 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 26, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    700 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • London soft premiere
    London
    United Kingdom
    January 26, 2020
    UK (soft)
Director Biography - Andrew Hall

Andrew is a London-based filmmaker who has been working in partnership with DP Ashley Hughes since 2011 to drive change and quality in low-to-no budget filmmaking. Working in digital (from DSLR to BlackMagic) and film (including two recent Super8 projects) his team want to remove the perceived entry barriers to short filmmaking by showing what can be done through hard work, preparation and a solid idea.

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Director Statement

We know that wilderness can build a community, but what happens when that community is taken away? TUPILAK is a project I have been thinking about for a long time, having first read the fascinating story of the disappeared Norse Greenlanders in an article by Ernest Journal almost three years ago. I knew that pulling together a film that captured the drama of their disappearance with the mystery, the horror of the wicked tupilak totems and the spectacle of the surroundings would be an enormous challenge for a zero-budget team, but our belief in the idea carried us through. In modern city life, the zeitgeist is for a return to the wilderness and greater freedom. Certainly, communities built in the wilderness seem strengthened by the pressure of their surroundings. With the Norse Greenlanders, what occured to me was that there must always have been a 'last one'. And when you are alone in the wilderness, that is a very different experience. That is what we have tried to capture, through Saga's character, through our cinematography, and through Jordan's haunting score of distorted natural sounds.