In an industry where so much can be faked with the help of computer wizardry, it’s almost mind-boggling to discover what the cast and crew undertook for the new Netflix movie Against the Ice.
“We shot in a hurricane. We were evacuated from a glacier. We were filming in Greenland 25-30 below [zero],” notes Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
“For me, it was a tough experience. But it was also one of the most fun shoots I’ve ever had.”
Best known to audiences as Jaime Lannister from HBO series Game of Thrones, Coster-Waldau stars in Against the Ice as real-life explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen, and co-wrote the script.
It is adapted from Mikkelsen’s book Two Against the Ice, a harrowing account of his expedition to the Arctic, which began in 1910.
For much of the journey, his only companion was Iver Iverson, a mechanic (played by British actor Joe Cole) who joined the trip in Iceland.
Coster-Waldau was sent the book by director Peter Flinth and was immediately hooked.
“There’s something about it that moved me,” he says. “I like these stories about going to the unknown. That is always interesting.
"All of us have this curiosity: what’s around the next corner? But it was really when he dived into the inner life that I thought was interesting.”
By that, he means the way Mikkelsen and Iversen fought to keep their sanity during their arduous trek.
When Coster-Waldau teamed up with his writer friend Joe Derrick, they cranked out a script for Flinth, who was determined to film it for real.
“I just thought that expedition films, or wildlife films, that I’ve seen that really worked were the ones that were actually shot in the elements,” he says.
Such was the case with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “mind-blowing” survival drama The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which was partly shot in the snowy realms of Canada — and bears some similarities to Against the Ice.
In this case, Flinth and his team shot in Iceland and Greenland, a country with little in the way of infrastructure to accommodate film crews.
I just thought that expedition films, or wildlife films, that I’ve seen that really worked were the ones that were actually shot in the elements
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Roads were built specially so the actors could shoot on glaciers and — perhaps echoing the madness inherent in the story — Coster-Waldau even filmed scenes where he hops from one perilous-looking iceberg to the next.
“That was insane. I mean, I don’t know how we got away with that,” he grins, “but I think it’s an incredible shot.”
In fact, the only thing that wasn’t done for real was the scene where Mikkelsen is attacked by a polar bear — although Flinth initially had other ideas.
Year earlier, he’d seen The Flight of the Eagle, the 1982 movie with Max von Sydow about an ill-fated balloon expedition to the Arctic.
“They’re struggling with a real polar bear,” says Flinth, who even found a man on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard who trained the creatures.
Eventually, he was persuaded otherwise.
“We couldn’t, for safety reasons, work with that,” Flinth says.
Instead, they created a computer-generated polar bear, while using an Olympic heavyweight judo champion to stand in for the creature on set.
Coster-Waldau was thrown around like a ragdoll by this stuntman.
“I wanted it to look good so I let my head go, which kind of caused a little bit of a concussion."
Perhaps it takes a certain insanity to get a film like this in the can — and to understand the mentality of a character like Ejnar Mikkelsen.
“He’s driven in a way that is hard to imagine,” says Coster-Waldau.
Not even frostbite or losing valuable food supplies is enough to make him turn back.
“Which, of course, is an incredible strength. It’s also his weakness because he’s so single-minded. And he has so little respect for the idea that someone would know better.”
Following in the footsteps of a failed expedition, Mikkelsen’s mission was more than just vanity. It was designed to find evidence that Greenland was not split in two, thereby disputing the US claim to the region.
Huge mistakes were made along the way — leaving Mikkelsen and Iversen stranded. Yet they were a perfect team, says Flinth.
“And to me, this is the most important message in the film — you need to keep up hope, you need to work together as companions. You need each other," he says.
As Coster-Waldau notes:“ A lot of these expeditions that ended in disaster was because … you had these alpha males suddenly under extreme pressure, and disagreeing, and getting into fights.
"Here it was very clear. One guy was making all the good decisions and the bad decisions.
"But for some reason, Iver had this incredible inner strength to not lash out. Even when all of us are watching and going, ‘This is insane,’”
Married to the singer Nukaka, from Greenland, Coster-Waldau has been visiting the country on and off for the past 25 years. “It’s a magical place,” he says.
And yet, sadly, it was all too clear when filming just what a catastrophe this unique land is now facing, with global warming causing the polar ice caps to melt at an alarming rate.
“We spent a couple of years researching, going on location trips,” Flinth says. “Each year, when we got back to a glacier it had melted.”
While Against the Ice is not an environmental movie as such, it’s impossible to watch it and not think about such issues — and how different it was just 100 years ago when men risked their lives to venture into the unknown.
“The rest of the world that we are polluting [means] the melting process is unstoppable now in Greenland,” sighs Flinth. “It’s kind of depressing.”
Survival, it seems, now means a very different thing indeed.
Against the Ice is available on Netflix from March 2
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Civil%20War
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Alex%20Garland%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Kirsten%20Dunst%2C%20Cailee%20Spaeny%2C%20Wagner%20Moura%2C%20Nick%20Offerman%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Gifts exchanged
- King Charles - replica of President Eisenhower Sword
- Queen Camilla - Tiffany & Co vintage 18-carat gold, diamond and ruby flower brooch
- Donald Trump - hand-bound leather book with Declaration of Independence
- Melania Trump - personalised Anya Hindmarch handbag
World record transfers
1. Kylian Mbappe - to Real Madrid in 2017/18 - €180 million (Dh770.4m - if a deal goes through)
2. Paul Pogba - to Manchester United in 2016/17 - €105m
3. Gareth Bale - to Real Madrid in 2013/14 - €101m
4. Cristiano Ronaldo - to Real Madrid in 2009/10 - €94m
5. Gonzalo Higuain - to Juventus in 2016/17 - €90m
6. Neymar - to Barcelona in 2013/14 - €88.2m
7. Romelu Lukaku - to Manchester United in 2017/18 - €84.7m
8. Luis Suarez - to Barcelona in 2014/15 - €81.72m
9. Angel di Maria - to Manchester United in 2014/15 - €75m
10. James Rodriguez - to Real Madrid in 2014/15 - €75m
The finalists
Player of the Century, 2001-2020: Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), Ronaldinho
Coach of the Century, 2001-2020: Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), Jose Mourinho (Tottenham Hotspur), Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid), Sir Alex Ferguson
Club of the Century, 2001-2020: Al Ahly (Egypt), Bayern Munich (Germany), Barcelona (Spain), Real Madrid (Spain)
Player of the Year: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
Club of the Year: Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Real Madrid
Coach of the Year: Gian Piero Gasperini (Atalanta), Hans-Dieter Flick (Bayern Munich), Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
Agent of the Century, 2001-2020: Giovanni Branchini, Jorge Mendes, Mino Raiola
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 178hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 280Nm at 1,350-4,200rpm
Transmission: seven-speed dual-clutch auto
Price: from Dh209,000
On sale: now
%20Ramez%20Gab%20Min%20El%20Akher
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECreator%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ramez%20Galal%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ramez%20Galal%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStreaming%20on%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMBC%20Shahid%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Zodi%20%26%20Tehu%3A%20Princes%20Of%20The%20Desert
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEric%20Barbier%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EYoussef%20Hajdi%2C%20Nadia%20Benzakour%2C%20Yasser%20Drief%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
