Danish animator, Jannik Hastrup, looks set to become the first director ever to have his film dubbed especially for audiences in Greenland.

His multiple-award winning The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Bear (Drengen Der Ville Gore Det Umulige), will be released in the Greenlandic language as Nukappiaraq Nanoorusuttoq and will premiere in the country on Dec 22.

The film had its world premiere at Berlin's Kinderfilmfest, where it received a special mention, and is a Euros 4,4m Danish-French-Norwegian co-production between Hastrup and producer Marie Bro's Dansk Tegnefilm 2 ApS and Didier Brunner's Les Armateurs with AnimagicNet's Lars Tommerbakke acting as associate producer.

It is a mythical story, based on traditional Eskimo legends, and tells how a polar bear steals a human baby boy and raises him as a bear. But the human father is determined to get his son back, and the boy has to find out if he is man or bear.

The Greenlandic voices are spoken by well-known locals Nukaka Coster-Waldau, Rasmus Lyberth, Makka Kleist, Pauline Lumholt and Julie Berthelsen.

Production outfit Dansk Tegnefilm, distributor Angel/Scanbox and broadcaster TV2 have all agreed to donate the profits from this release to a Greenlandic institution for children.

Jannik Hastrup's previous directing credits include H.C. Andersen's The Long Shadow (1998), Circleen: City Mouse (1998) and Circleen: Mice and Romance (2000).