DOK.fest München 2025: Ice Grave (dir. Robin Hunzinger) | Review
Ice Grave sets a gripping tale of adventure against the backdrop of humanity’s relentless urge to conquer the world it inhabits.
In July 1897, three Swedish explorers—Andrée, Frænkel, and Strindberg—set off in a hydrogen balloon, aiming to fly over the North Pole. At the time, the poles were the focus of intense international exploration, and the trio’s ambitious journey was driven by Sweden’s desire to stand out among Western powers. But soon after their departure, all contact with them was lost. It wasn’t until 1930 that an expedition discovered their remains on Kvitøya (“White Island”), alongside the remnants of a makeshift camp, and partially preserved travel journals, and photo negatives. These invaluable artifacts have since been studied by scientists seeking to unravel the mystery of the tragic end of their journey.
In Ice Grave, director Robin Hunzinger masterfully recounts the story of this doomed expedition, which ended in an icy grave for the three men, and invites us to reflect on what their journey reveals about human nature. The feature-length documentary had its world premiere in the main DOK.international competition at DOK.fest München 2025.
Visually, the film draws on archival photographs, early film footage, and explorers’ writings, brought to life through a clever animation technique and a compelling voice-over that carries the narrative with fluidity and energy. Interwoven with these historical materials are conversations between the director and three passionate experts—a historian-photographer, a writer, and a doctor—whose research into the 1897 expedition becomes a way to reflect on our present age, the legacy of those who came before us, and what we might leave behind for generations to come.
At the end of the 19th century, the polar regions remained inaccessible, uncharted frontiers that stirred deep yearnings for conquest. The great polar expeditions embodied humanity’s desire to dominate nature through technology, to feel alive by stamping its power onto the world. Today, nearly every corner of the Earth has been claimed—at the expense of other living species—and human ambition now turns skyward, toward space and the mysteries of the infinite. Nothing, it seems, can contain our boundless drive.
The 40th edition of DOK.fest München is running on May 7-18, 2025, in Munich, Germany.
