Minik, boy from the North Pole
2004
Directed by Axel Engstfeld
Customer: NDR/ARTE
Story
The story of an Eskimo boy brought to New York with four other Eskimos in 1897 by the renowned Arctic explorer Robert Peary. An anthropologist by the name of Franz Boas had put in an "order" for the Eskimos so he could study them in comfort. After just a few short weeks, the Eskimos died, except for Minik. But it took 16 years before he would return to Greenland The key scenes in these events are dramatised in the film in two different versions: firstly as what actually happened, and secondly as what could have happened. The series explores both variants, indicating the dramatic occurrences of these days that defined history and analysing how and why a whole range of consequences ensued from these events. Interviews with internationally renowned experts and dramatic reconstructions at the site of the original events convey a gripping, tangible image of the events in question – of what actually happened and of what might have been.
