In East Greenland, an entire generation is on the brink of extinction while another is being born.
THE RED HOUSE tells the life story of Italian adventurer Robert Peroni, who in Greenland found new meaning in his life by helping the last hunter-gatherer people in Europe.
Seal skins and meat can no longer be sold, so hunters have lost their only source of income.
The Danes wanted to give all Greenlanders the same opportunities for education and healthcare.
Therefore, hunting families were moved to new villages in permanent houses.
But they had to abandon their semi-nomadic life.
In recent years, this has led to rising rates of alcoholism, depression, and suicide.
Furthermore, some behavioral patterns are still imprinted in people's minds and are difficult to eradicate.
These include child abuse as well as the high rate of suicide among young people.
Entering this story, in which everyone seems to have acted for the good but in which everyone seems to have failed, is Robert Peroni.
Having risen to fame as an extreme explorer in the 1980s, he explored the limits of human performance.
Peroni was the first to walk across the Greenland ice sheet at its widest point.
During this expedition, he falls in love with Greenland and its people.
He then decides to abandon the pursuit of fame and money and moves here with a new mission: to save Europe's last hunting population from extinction.
In Tasiilaq, the largest settlement in East Greenland, population 2000, Robert founded the Red House in 1994, which is both a bed and breakfast for foreigners and a shelter for locals in need.
Young people in particular come to the Red House when they can't find a way out of their problems, including 17-year-old Laila, who was abused as a child, and 25-year-old Illanguaq.
Every family has victims to mourn, especially in eastern Greenland, where the winter is particularly long and the nature particularly beautiful.
Robert Peroni wants to offer these people a future by adopting a sustainable tourism model inherited from his homeland, South Tyrol. Peroni is convinced that not only the locals will benefit, but also his guests: "We can learn more from the Inuit than they can from us."
