The documentary about the exploitation of cryolite in Ivittuut is still causing repercussions.
The professional journal for journalists, Journalisten, can report on Thursday that a screening of the film in Iceland in March last year was canceled, and two researchers believe that the cancellation was due to Danish interference.
Greenland's White Gold was scheduled to be shown on March 22, 2025 at the Nordic House in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, and the house invited the Danish embassy to the premiere. Shortly after, the director of the Nordic House, Sabina Westerholm, received calls from both the Danish ambassador to Iceland, Erik Vilstrup Lorenzen, and from the Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers, Karen Ellemann, writes Journalisten.
The journalist has obtained the information based on access to documents, which shows that Karen Ellemann told Sabina Westerholm that "the film cannot be shown without a nuanced discussion that places it in the right context."
According to the Journalisten, it was Sólveig Ásta Sigurðardóttir, a postdoc at the University of Iceland and researcher in colonialism, and her colleague, PhD student Bryndís Björnsdóttir, who had arranged the Icelandic screening of the documentary.
They believe that there was political pressure that led to the cancellation, and that the episode reinforces the image of Denmark as a former colonial power.
The film ended up being shown at the University of Iceland and not at the Nordic House. Karen Ellemann writes to the Journalisten that she does not see the odiousness in the fact that she has been in dialogue with the Nordic House about the screening, because the Nordic House in Reykjavik is a cultural institution under the Nordic Council of Ministers.
