Isole d'istanti

When there was only one continent on Earth,

Spitsbergen, the largest of the Svalbard islands, was at the Equator,

not far from where El Hierro is today,

the smallest and most distant of the Canary archipelago.

For centuries, the two islands at the opposite end of Europe

were the beginning and the end of everything.

The Canaries were mentioned by Homer as blessed or lucky islands.

Fruits grew by themselves, there was no winter and death was unknown.

There were no Svalbards on the ancient maps.

Beyond the ice, there had to be something like Paradise.

The places where apparently nothing happens, are the ones that require the most personality.

This is a journey between people who would never have imagined, one day, to say "I'm here".

They arrived in Longyearbyen and El Hierro driven by different currents, then chose to stay.

Or were the places to choose them.

This is a journey in search of the essence of Europe, looking at it from its extreme borders.

Inside landscapes slipped into the people who live there.

There must be a place where what you have been and what you want to be

are in dialogue with each other.

Olaf is eccentric and is pleased to be so.

Always.

In summer he shaves his beard and in winter he lets it grow until the light comes back.

He likes to call himself "The man who is not Santa Claus".

In summer, it has already happened that someone has asked if Olaf was at home.

"Yes", I reply, "he will come soon".

Half an hour passes before they realize that it is me.

When he was teaching in kindergartens, southern of Norway,

Olaf used to go up to Svalbard with the last trappers.

One day he decided to take his life in his hands and devoted himself to lithography. His passion.

He bought a giant German press, and he built himself a three-story house,

designed like a nest, not too far from the sea.

I make images of my life.

This is the life I live and these are the images I get from it.

I live here and put Svalbard in pictures.

Things I saw, things I dreamed of,

things I think about.

Bozz, come here!

Come here.

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to be able to translate

what nature says to us human beings...

Come here.

..and to disclose the opinion of the bear.

I am a sort of interpreter of a wisdom

that is found in this nature,

which maybe is the polar bear to show us, or other animals that live here.

Perhaps they have a hard life, but also a very beautiful one.

I feel that I have it too.

Questions of latitude,

on the island from which Longitude was measured up to 150 years ago.

Enrica and Paolo met fifteen years ago, in the Libyan desert.

A first whirlwind romance led them to live together immediately.

The second to leave Italy for El Hierro.

They have been here for thirteen years.

We followed a flow that came before us and we followed it without fear.

We were not looking for anything but we followed it,

we let ourselves go and it was all very fluid.

Before coming here... Do you remember? We were in front of the fireplace.

Yes!

So in the winter by the fireplace and you asked me:

"A more beautiful place than this...?"

We were in a country house and we liked it a lot.

"A more beautiful place than this what should it have?"

So I thought for a moment and I said: "What could it have?"

"Well, the sea!"

Now the sea surrounds them. And they talk like natives of El Hierro.

I have traveled a lot for work, for passion. I have moved a lot.

But this place is probably the only one I feel I belong to.

We certainly feel adopted by the island.

We are linked to el Hierro as a geological formation.

As a place, as a land and as plants.

This is where we have an energy exchange.

I believe that a place adopts you when it resonates within you.

When there's a coincidence inside you.

Here is our relationship with the island.

We have to go around the world to look at ourselves from behind.

It's not always the easiest journey.

Never the shortest one.

Silvia studied medicine in Switzerland.

She was a pediatrician in Bern when her love for photography pushed her to Svalbard.

She immediately felt that her place in the world was there.

The first time I came in 2006, it was love at first sight.

Especially in a particular situation.

We were on a boat completely surrounded by ice.

It was a very intense experience, which struck me a lot.

It made me feel... part of something immense and at the same time feeling tiny.

My parents emigrated to Gran Canaria and I studied there,

and my gift was holidays.

The prize for being promoted? El Hierro!

My mind and my heart have always been here.

When my mother died...

I was her support in the last years of her life.

When she died, I found my roots in El Hierro, my island...

even though I come from the Canaries.

Alejandro has been a surf instructor for 25 years.

He recognizes the character of each wave.

Half of the year he collects bananas

and in the time that remains he devotes himself to fire prevention,

and to explore the soul of people.

Today everything is flowing fast.

And unfortunately humans...

don't have the time to meet themselves.

El Hierro gives you this opportunity.

If you are with yourself, what you have, you offer it,

but if you don't find yourself, what can you offer?

You offer what you're seeing.

This island gives you the opportunity to meet you

and offer your quality of life.

Jovna is an organist and choir director in the northernmost church in Europe.

He is of Sami origin,

a population of 75,000 who has a language, a radio, a parliament,

but not his own territory.

There used to be so many Sami here.

They worked with the Russians in the mines. Now there are only a few left.

It was by chance.

I wasn't looking for a new job, but when I heard that there was a vacancy here in church,

I was intrigued.

Initially I thought of a short stay abroad.

I thought I'd stay at Svalbard for a year

and then go back to my old job in Norway.

But up here it's so fantastic that I decided to stay longer.

Some have arrived on these islands to escape the storms, when it was headed even further.

Some interpreted as a sign, a lost coincidence, a near-collision,

the unexpected phone call of a friend.

Or a meeting, a duty, a mission.

Some arrived by sea, without knowing if there was a port.

There are those who remain because they are tired of bouncing here and there,

and those who feel that the starting point is too far from what they have become.

I come from Scotland.

A small island in the north of Scotland called Skye. The island of Skye. You know?

A very beautiful island but no sun.

Lots of cold, lots of rain.

You have to find somebody else... You have to find somebody else to be...

I left Scotland because there was no work. I decided to travel.

So I took my guitar, my tent, change of clothes...

Travel. Yeah.

Tamas' partner is a teacher. They met on the continent.

They were looking for a place to live together.

They thought of Africa, then she told him: "I know a place that looks like it. I was born there".

Coming here for her was a return. But it was he who stayed when love vanished.

When I came here I didn't think I will stay here either.

It is very, very difficult to stay here, because there is nothing.

You have to have lot of strength.

This place has made history.

It was the Zero Meridian when the earth was thought to be flat.

The boats came here and thought that after this there was nothing.

This was the last port.

The same Christopher Columbus passed through here.

It was the last port... Not even a port, there was just a house. They loaded food and left.

During an armed robbery... I am a jeweler.

In a minute and 40 seconds, they took away my whole life and my savings.

In Senigallia we were not insured because it was a quiet town.

So I found myself starting over,

but I decided to do it in another part of the world and not Italy anymore

because I didn't feel protected anymore.

Opportunities are not announced. They arrive.

Davide and his wife were waiting for a signal about their future.

They were leafing through a magazine, a night when they struggled to sleep.

There was a small restaurant for sale on the sea of an island unknown to most.

The price was high. They decided to go and see it anyway, instinctively.

A moment later they were the owners of the smallest hotel in the world.

For a form of precaution for the safety of mothers and children, nobody can be born on Svalbard.

There is a small, very functional hospital, but it is not equipped for emergencies.

Kristin lived in Oslo and ended up here because of a fire.

Today she is in charge of the maternity ward, but feels half-hearted.

I can't say for sure where this rule comes from.

When I arrived three years ago, I was told that births are not planned here.

Of course, if someone starts labor earlier than expected,

they receive help, day and night.

One reason is related to the variability of weather conditions

that could prevent you from reaching the Tromsø hospital at any time.

Here are two general practitioners

and two surgeons who share the picket shifts.

It could therefore happen that on duty there is a generalist doctor

who for years has not managed a birth.

For these reasons all pregnant women must leave three weeks before the deadline.

Of the five hundred children living here

two have written on the Identity Card: born in Spitsbergen.

As always there are exceptions.

From what I heard, the last birth that took place here was a decade ago.

Two twins born after Christmas.

They were given birth by caesarean section

and then sent to Tromsø for subsequent treatment.

I think they were born in the 36th week.

A thousand kilometers from the North Pole and as many from the coasts of Norway

people do not grow old.

Having turned eighty to continue to receive a pension, you have to go and live on the Continent.

"To be self-sufficient" is the law of the Frontier.

The turnover is very tight. Here people stay on average six and a half years.

Of the first friends that Silvia made when she arrived here, only one was left here: Katja.

Fortunately, the one she loves the most.

In Longyearbyen the doors are not locked

so that anyone can help the neighbor if a bear decides to show up for dinner.

A legendary woman lived in one of these houses until her 80th birthday.

Then she had to leave. Freia.

There has been talk of her for her revolutionary method that should frighten polar bears:

a handkerchief impregnated with ammonium chloride.

For her luck, she never had to experience it.

In some ways, the fantasies of the ancients are realized in Longyearbyen.

Death is not unknown, but it can be kept away.

The small cemetery dates back to the 1930s.

Since then, it is forbidden to rest here forever.