Kalaallit Nunaat, or Greenland, is on the news a lot lately because a country is trying to illegally conquer it. It is worse to be an American colony than a Danish one, but being a colony still has its downsides. Those downsides are evident in the flawed justice system in Denmark that Akinni Inuk captures.

Directors Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg and Sofie Rørdam first conceived of Walls – Akinni Inuk as a collective documentary. The Danish prison kiboshed that project but the directors zeroed in on Ruth, an incarceree for a crime. That crime is killing her abuser, which gets her an indefinite sentence, which is baffling in my perspective.

Through narration, Ruth gets to tell viewers her side of the story, about the abuse that she experienced when she was just a little girl. Being on that side of abuse can turn someone to anger, the same anger that Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg is familiar with. Both open up their similar traumas in Walls – Akinni Inuk, as well as discuss the justice system that fails them.

My biggest worry about Akinni Inuk is that this diptych feels incomplete and imperfect, especially as it goes inward. Thankfully, it saves itself by having Ruth in the forefront, a subject who is frank about her feelings under incarceration. “I’m useless,” she says, a feeling that’s inescapable under incarceration even if her prison isn’t as tough as other ones.

Even if the conversations are tough, they mostly happen in the prison’s living room, which gives the film a soothing air. The conflict here is one between women against society, and for the most part I’m happy about how it depicts conflict. Having these discussions in Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) is also great, a language that both women can speak to express themselves.