In 2021, the only church on a tiny Arctic island burnt down — and with it, a living archive of the past 800 years went up in smoke. The fire didn’t just erase a piece of the island’s past; it also marked the end and the beginning of an era. History, after all, moves pretty slowly on Grímsey.
“There’s no sense of time,” says UK-based filmmaker Nikolai Galitzine. “None of the clocks seem to work. The only way to tell the time is by watching for the ferry, which shows up at noon three days a week. Then you calculate your entire day off of that one sighting. After a while, I can’t tell you how …normal it starts to feel.”
Island life
Nikolai is the creator of MIÐGARÐAKIRKJA – Portrait of an Island — a feature length documentary about life on Grímsey. Taking place over the course of the early 2020s, the documentary follows the islanders through the twists and turns of the seasons — from that church fire, to the rise in mass tourism. Through intimate portraits and interviews with the locals, it also attempts to preserve the island’s lengthy oral history.
Grímsey is just three miles long with 30 residents. It’s a place relatively few people visit, Icelanders included. But despite its isolation, it has been continuously inhabited for more than eight centuries. Throughout that time, it has been a haven of peace and freedom — something Nikolai has grown to love.
“This year, I was there for three months without leaving,” says Nikolai. “Nobody recommends that, not even the locals. You get this sort of island madness everyone suffers from. But when you return to the mainland, something incredible happens. You step off the ferry in Akureyri, and suddenly there are roads, and you don’t know where they lead. And on those roads, there are all these rows of doors. You don’t know who’s behind each door. On Grímsey, you know every blade of grass.”
Hanging in the balance
But life on Grímsey is becoming tougher. With strict fishing quotas imposed by the government, and local authorities in Akureyri subtly encouraging residents to leave, maintaining a community there is increasingly difficult. The fate of the island hangs in the balance. But then perhaps it always has.
Initially involved in the church’s reconstruction as a carpenter, Nikolai had never been to Grímsey before he began making the film. But after spending more time there than most Icelanders, what started as a documentary about the church quickly became something bigger.
“It became more about how I can contribute to this community — because they’ve become friends now,” he explains. “I’m not here to make a tourist video for YouTube, although I’m still not sure whether the islanders actually believe that. I’m here to record something that may not be this way in ten years’ time. I’m making this film for the people of Grímsey.”
When Nikolai first began filming, it was just him and his camera. But the MIÐGARÐAKIRKJA now has the backing of state broadcaster RÚV, and will even represent Iceland nationally at the Nordisk Panorama film festival in Malmö, Sweden later this week.
And next June, the documentary will finally come home, with a premiere set to take place in the very church it takes its name from. What began as an attempt to preserve a building’s history will very soon become part of it.
MIÐGARÐAKIRKJA – Portrait of an Island will be released on June 21, 2025
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