Pyramiden: Welcome to the film festival at the end of the world

Lynn Houghton heads to the movies at an abandoned Soviet Arctic mining settlement on Svalbard

Step back in time at the Culture Palace’s screening room (Lynn Houghton)

An eerie silence descends on this abandoned mining settlement in the Arctic, interspersed with furious winds emitting high-pitched fatuous noises as they whip past empty buildings.

A large bust of Stalin at the northwestern end of town still casts a stern, commanding look over proceedings, even though Pyramiden’s operations ceased in 1998 and all inhabitants, save a few caretakers, have left.

Some 600km from the north pole, the frozen wilderness of Svalbard, which includes the island of Spitsbergen where Pyramiden is located, is gripped by four months of polar darkness. At this latitude, ferocious storms, fjords freezing over and temperatures plummeting below -20C are a common occurrence. This is also the time that the Kings of the Arctic – otherwise known as polar bears – are most active as they use sea ice as a platform to hunt seals. Unlike their Canadian and Russian cousins, they do not hibernate and are confident about approaching and investigating human habitation. However, it is strictly forbidden to hunt or even interact with them due to a decree from the 1970s.