Channelling Arctic amplification in Joachim Trier’s Thelma

This article examines how Joachim Trier’s film Thelma (2017) links the unconscious death drive to external environmental instability, in particular, the crises exacerbated by Arctic amplification. Through its hybrid deployment of horror-psychological thriller and its mise en scène – such as the iceberg-like Oslo Opera House set piece, which conjoins an emblem of climate vulnerability with the death drive – the film dramatizes how ecological precarity and the unconscious are entwined. The article ultimately argues that Thelma’s initially destructive libidinal energy – manifesting in both environmental and interpersonal harm – is not eradicated but rechanneled towards provisional relationality. However, this transformation remains fraught: while Thelma appears to overcome the patriarchal control that determines her death drive, she risks reproducing colonial dynamics by psychically annexing her queer love interest, Anja. Analysing Thelma alongside the politics of green colonialism and Indigenous Sámi resistance to projects like Norway’s Fosen wind farm, the article traces both the promise and peril of a redirected drive, advancing the broader claim: while inherently linked to destruction, the death drive can become a site of relational possibility.