Feature documentary, 90 min.
2025

Directed by Corina Gamma
Produced by Danielle Giuliani and Patrick Merkle
tellfilm Production

ICEMAN poetically weaves the Arctic surrounding with the life of climate researcher Konrad Steffen, whose work on climate change led to his tragic end — claimed by the very ice he devoted his life to studying.

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In August 2020, the world learned that Konrad Steffen, a respected and well known Swiss-American polar scientist, had vanished on Greenland’s icecap. The news sent ripples through the scientific community and beyond. How could a man so attuned to the Arctic simply disappear into it? If anyone understood the dangers of the nature of the ice, it was Konrad Steffen.
Tall and bearded, “Koni,” as friends called him, embodied the essence of the polar explorer – driven by a limitless curiosity, pushing boundaries, forever reaching deeper into the ice. For three decades he studied the Polar Regions, deciphering its slow surrender to climate change. Institutions, scientists and governments were drawn to his insights and sought his knowledge. What force had first pulled him to the polar regions?
Through the voices of those who knew him best – colleagues, friends, and family, paint a portrait of a man and his obsession. They take us back to Greenland, to the place that both fascinated and haunted him, and ultimately became his final resting place.

Written and directed by
Corina Gamma

Producer
Danielle Giuliani

Line Producer & Dramaturgical Consultant
Patrick Merkle

Commissioning Editor SRF
Urs Augustburger

Music Composer
Marcel Vaid

Director of Photography
Peter Indergand

Additional Camera
Corina Gamma

Sound
Reto Stamm

Editing
Barbara Landi

Assistant Editor
Lars Wicki

Swiss Distributor: Frenetic Films

Funded by:

Zürcher Filmstiftung
SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen / SRG SSR
Swiss Polar Institut
UBS Kulturstiftung
Dätwyler Stiftung
Else von Sick Stiftung
Volkart Stiftung
Crowdfunding