It’s now 40 years since the end of the Cod Wars between Britain and Iceland. During the 1950s and 60s, Britain consumed 430,000 tons of cod each year, but as the stocks started to diminish the livelihoods of fishing communities in both countries were at stake. Iceland took steps to protect their fishing industry - the mainstay of their economy - resulting in the three so-called Cod Wars. This was a David and Goliath struggle, where the small fleet of Icelandic gunboats were pitted against the British trawlers and the Royal Navy in the North Atlantic.  This Icelandic film, made in 2001, tells the story from both sides and reflects on the impact of the Cod Wars in Grimsby and Hull.

Cod Wars

The logbook of a few Icelandic trawler-men in 1947-1970. It was dangerous to go on a drinking spree in those days — the Icelandic trawlers were short of crew, so skippers went back to the old way of manning their ships. Man-hunting, or 'Shanghaiing' was the name of the game.

Sjanghæjað til sjós

Ragnar Alexsson, a.k.a. RAX, is among the most celebrated photographers in the world. His series Faces of the North are a living document of the dying cultures of the far northern reaches of the planet. His photo essays of farmers and fishermen in Icleand, and of the great hunters of Greenland give an amazing insight into everyday life of people who struggle a daily battle with the Arctic nature.  A celebration of the photographer and his subjects, Last Days of the Arctic is an elegy for a disappearing landscape and the people who inhabit it.