On his radio show A Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor used to refer amusingly to “Norwegian Bachelor Farmers” who resided in his (make believe) hometown of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota.

Not only was the town fictional, so were those putative Norwegian yeomen. For a real-life, honest-to-goodness, authentic Scandinavian Bachelor Farmer, you can turn to the documentary As the Tide Comes In, which recently made its world premiere at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (better known as IDFA). The film directed by Juan Palacios principally revolves around Gregers, the last farmer inhabiting remote Mandø, an island in Denmark’s Wadden Sea.

Mandø, measuring only 8-square kilometers, isn’t easy to access.

High tide covering the only road to get to Mandø Island, Denmark on July 30, 2021.

“It’s a place that is pretty much ruled by the tides,” Palacios explains. “In order to get to the island, you have to go through this...