Thu, Jan 30 / 7 pm
Sat, Feb 1 / 7 pm
Directed by Zacharias Kunuk
2019, Canada, 113 min
French with English subtitles
For decades, Zacharias Kunuk has been one of the most exciting, dynamic, and innovative filmmakers in Canada, and indeed the world. With Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner — a prize winner at Cannes and voted the best Canadian film of all time in a recent TIFF poll — Kunuk introduced a film language that combined myth, history, and folklore. His latest film hinges on a pivotal 1961 encounter on spring sea ice between the title character (Apayata Kotierk) and other community leaders and a government emissary (Kim Bodnia), who has come to ask them to relocate their families. Behind what seems to the hunters to be the government agent’s incoherent requests is a policy that will mean a fundamental rupture in the lives of Inuit. In this one day — and this fateful meeting — Kunuk condenses much about Inuit–settler relations. The emotional and historical layers in the film make it one of his finest works. – TIFF
Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival is generously sponsored by TIFF and IATSE 856.
