Watching “Borgen” and Remembering our Visit to Ilulissat

The harbor of Ilulissat was blocked by an iceberg the day we visited, so the ship couldn't dock.
We had to use the zodiac boats to get to land. This is the site of much of the Greenland action in “Borgen.”

Since our return from our long trip, we have been watching Season 4 of the Danish TV series “Borgen,” recently released on Netflix. The action takes place partly in Greenland, which is an autonomous region of the kingdom of Denmark, from which it receives an annual grant. Thus the government of Denmark plays a large role in Greenland, so the Danish politics in the earlier parts of the series continue in this season.

Credit...

The main action in Greenland takes place specifically in one area that we visited: in the town of Ilulissat, the Ilulissat Icefjord, and Disko Bay with its huge icebergs that come from the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier. This is a real place -- and is also the site where, fictitiously in the TV series, oil is being found. There are also a few scenes in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland set in places that we also visited. And a sequence in the extreme North, where no tourists go. The filming was done in the exact locations that we toured.

In “Borgen,” the Danish Arctic Ambassador is taken hiking up this steep slope in sight of the Icefjord.
Here you see our fellow-passengers climbing the steep rocky slope.

The Arctic Ambassador in Borgen: Asger Holm Kirkegaard, played by Mikkel Boe Følsgaard (source).

The political characters in Borgen, both Danes and Greenlanders, have many issues with oil drilling, including the general issues of climate change and the specific concern that a fragile and valuable environment will be disturbed. The plot centers around the global and local risks of oil drilling, and the aspirations of Greenlanders to obtain enough money from their natural resources to be independent from the government of Denmark and no longer dependent on the large annual grant. Watching the series is making me think more about the economic and cultural challenges faced by the native people of Greenland.

Borgen Season 4: Nivi Pedersen as Emmy Rasmussen. (source)

Our local guide on the boardwalk to the Icefjord,
the area where the Greenland scenes of Borgen are set.

One thing I do know: Greenland has oil and many other valuable mineral deposits such as copper, and there are indeed controversies over the risks of drilling and mining, as portrayed in the TV series. In 2021, in fact, Greenland's government decided to ban oil drilling, which wold be a substantial source of cash if exploited.  

"Greenland’s west coast alone is estimated to contain about 18 billion barrels of oil, according to a recent study from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. The U.S. Geological Survey has previously estimated that there may be double that volume in crude and natural gas in the east." (source: Time Magazine)

I'm enjoying the Greenland scenery shown in the series. As I said, it's in exactly the area where we visited. It’s impossible to imagine the awesome beauty and sheer size of the icebergs and ice formations there, so I like viewing the scenes in which the characters in the series are seeing what I remember. In the final episode, there’s even a trip to the Icefjord in a small boat that looked just like the one that took us out, but they only mentioned whales, and we actually saw them.

An iceberg in the Icefjord, as we saw it from the little boat.

Food Scenes in Borgen

When viewing TV shows, I'm always looking for any food the characters eat: Borgen has people at the table in homes and restaurants, but the details are vague — a piece of cake here/a sausage there. The main character, the Danish Foreign Secretary Birgitte Nyborg, seems to always say "Thanks, I'm not hungry." Or she has the waiter clear her untouched plate of food, which isn't shown or described. When a colleague brings in a meal from McDonald’s she says she never eats food like that — so he eats her burger as well as his. 

In another scene, which was sort of amusing, a couple have spent the night together and the man makes his partner a beautiful breakfast (which we viewers don’t see close-up). She has had only a glass of OJ, when they are urgently called into a high-level meeting. As they rush out of his apartment she says Thanks Anyway.

But the characters do drink a lot of coffee! And beer! And wine! And Perrier!

Episode 2: A Greenland official offers a Danish rep cake and coffee.

 

Borgen characters at the table -- with coffee. (Publicity photo).

The one Danish person who was traveling with us on the Explorer was the photo rep from NatGeo. She recommended the series enthusiastically, and our impression is that it has been quite popular in Denmark. 

It's a fun series even if you haven't been to Greenland! The plot and the pace are  good, the characters are interesting, and the actors are skillful and effective.

More Places Featured in Borgen (that we visited)

Zodiac landing on the shore of Disko Island where the fictional oil was found.
(I've posted this photo before.)

Here's Len in the incredible, unspoiled landscape of Disko Island.
The proposed oil drilling efforts in Borgen Season 4 are a threat to this area!

Another town beside Disko Bay.

UPDATE: Headline in the Washington Post on Aug. 29, 2022:

Greenland ice sheet set to raise sea levels by nearly a foot, study finds

Blog post © 2022 mae sander