Hope you packed a jacket because this week we’re heading north to cross another country off my Letterboxd Map. Next stop, Greenland for Ivalu (2023).
Title: Ivalu
Directors: Anders Walter and Pipaluk K. Jørgensen
Released: January 22, 2023 (Australia, Brazil, Romania)
Runtime: 16 minutes
Pipaluk is looking for her sister. Simple enough setup.
Except no one else seems interested in helping her find Ivalu. Especially not their father, who is more concerned with getting his sleep than answering some very reasonable questions about his missing daughter.
So Pipaluk does what she can. She looks. Everywhere.
At the same time, the town is preparing for a royal visit. Her father even tells her to wear Ivalu’s dress for the occasion. Which… sure, that’s certainly a choice.
Things shift when a raven enters the picture.
Through a mix of dreams and memory, Pipaluk follows it into the mountains, retracing the places she and Ivalu used to go. Picking berries, hiding out, just being kids.
Each stop feels like it should bring her closer. The ice cave. The fjord. It never does.
So where is she?
That question lingers until the film finally offers an answer. When it comes, it is more unsettling than surprising.
At face value, Ivalu is a quiet, visually striking short that builds atmosphere but struggles to build momentum. The cinematography does a lot of the heavy lifting. Those Greenland landscapes create a real sense of isolation that fits the story.
But structurally, the film stalls. Each new location repeats the same emotional beat instead of building on it. What should feel like progression instead feels static.
Because of that, the final reveal lands with less force than it should. It plays more like confirmation than a turning point.
To Ivalu’s credit, it handles its subject matter with restraint. There is no sensationalism here, which is exactly the right call. That restraint also makes it a difficult watch, not because of anything shown, but because of what is implied.
It’s bleak, unapologetically so. But it keeps you at arm’s length the whole time, and that distance ultimately costs it.
This is a heavy 16 minutes. I respect it more than I liked it.
If you’ve seen Ivalu, I’d be curious where you landed on it. Drop a comment below.
And if you want to keep up with what I’m watching, you can find me on Bluesky and Letterboxd.