Map of the Human Heart

Released 1992
Stars Jason Scott Lee, Robert Joamie, Anne Parillaud, Annie Galipeau, John Cusack
Directed by Vincent Ward

In 1931, a chartist lands a plane in the Arctic to map unrecorded regions. He takes an Eskimo boy with tuberculosis back to civilization where he is healed and indoctrinated in a Catholic hospital. The Eskimo meets a "half-breed" girl (father was French, mother was Indian) and they fall in love. They are separated and the Eskimo returns to the Arctic. Years later he encounters the chartist again and sends a message to his love via the chartist. He joins the air force to fight Hitler, and runs into her again, but there are obstacles that threaten his friendships and relationships.
 
Summary written by Ed Sutton {esutton@nortel.ca}

I don't know if I have ever viewed a film scene as devastating as the ending to this film. If you haven't seen the movie and intend to, you shouldn't read this. It was the surprise that made it so moving...

This film is about the life of an Eskimo man, Avik, which begins with him as a boy in his village and ends with him dying accidentally on an ice floe. In the beginning we see him play with his friends, and we see unadulterated joy. It's thrilling to watch the children's faces as they toss each other high into the air with a sealskin blanket. The only word I can use to describe this is "joy," and it's beautiful to watch.

By the end of the film, Avik has traveled a long path. He joined the air force and became a fighter pilot and fell in love with his childhood friend, Albertine. She married someone else, however, and he lost his passion for life. He returned to his Eskimo village and squandered the rest of his years in alcoholism. At the end of the film, his daughter (whom he fathered with Albertine) tracks him down and invites him to her wedding. Once again we see hope in his eyes. He's excited to see his daughter and to see his love again. We get the sense the film may end happily as Avik is given a reason to turn his life around and to fulfill the potential we saw in the beginning, but this doesn't happen.

On his way to catch a boat, he has a snowmobile accident and is stranded on an ice floe. Severely injured and dying, he fantasizes about the wedding. There are several beautiful images, and then he sinks slowly into the frigid ocean. It's sad, but not spectacular. But then the director, Vincent Ward, does something brilliant. He fades to the scene where young Avik is being tossed into the air. The earlier scene was beautiful, not only because of the joy we saw in Avik's face, but in the potential we saw. At that point it seemed he was capable of anything in the world. Furthermore, it seemed this way for all happy children--that if a child was loved, he could do anything. Fading the sad, wasted result of Avik's life into the limitless, joyous potential was brilliant and emotionally devastating. I'm from the old school of men's emotions, and I'm not comfortable crying in any situation. I must admit, however, that I broke down and cried. My wife and I both cried for about ten minutes, and neither of us could stop. I just wanted to wake my kids up, give them hugs, and tell them I loved them. --Bill Alward, February 24, 1999