To film this intimate portrait of white giants, filmmaker Jerome Bouvier has circled around Spitsbergen for a year with skidoos, buggies or sailing boats.

He endured continuous blinding daylight in these viciously cold areas, with temperatures as low as minus 55 degrees Celsius and winds up to 30 miles per hour. The polar bear is the largest land carnivore and has the reputation of being the only animal that actively hunts humans.

Polar bears are the most likely species to kill humans for food, as they assume anything they encounter is potential prey. Nevertheless, not much choice is given to the filmmaker: Jerome Bouvier and his guides had to venture into the intimacy of these starving giants, relying only on sounds and visual displays to scare off the ever-inquisitive beasts.