The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat)

Released 2001
Stars Natar Ungalaaq, Pakkak Innukshuk, Sylvia Ivalu, Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq
Directed by Zacharias Kunuk
Reviewed March 12, 2003

This movie is unlike anything I've seen before. It looks and feels like a documentary, but it's really a drama told in a documentary style. It's based on an ancient Inuit legend, but I'm not sure the story is it's primary purpose. It's certainly not what makes the movie remarkable. The reason the movie has resonated with so many viewers is the way it shows us an ancient way of life that existed for several millennia right up until last century. It's really about the way these nomadic Inuits have lived in the Arctic for thousands of years, and it can be fascinating to watch these people live in what must be the most brutal environment ancient man has tamed. That title has to go to either the arctic or the desert. The arctic has my vote after watching this, and they don't even show a snowstorm or blizzard.

The Inuit legend the movie is based on has been passed down through the generations, and it's refreshing to know primitive societies had the same problems we have today with evil and murder. Well, maybe it's more depressing than refreshing to know man is inherently violent and evil, but I did find it interesting how the tiny clans tried to resolve their conflicts peacefully. I watched a show recently that showed primitive man living in similar conditions, and one point they made was how important each individual man was to the tribe. In their nomadic hunting society, the loss of even one man was devastating and could mean death for the entire clan. The Inuits' society was similar, and they had set rituals for resolving conflicts without really hurting each other. In the movie, we watch Oki and Atanarjuat stand toe-to-toe and take turns carefully hitting each other in the head until one man gives up. It seems ridiculous, but it allows them to come to blows without causing permanent damage. It's actually pretty shrewd, and Europeans would have done something similar if their populations were as tiny as the Inuits. Instead, Europeans developed the "duel to the death" which was used for centuries to resolve the pettiest of quibbles, quarrels, and perceived slights. It was a ridiculous system, but they could afford to lose a person here and there.

I had no idea what to expect when I first started watching this movie, so it took me quite a while to figure out what (I thought) was happening. We're immediately thrust into a dimly lit scene where someone has been killed by a stranger, but none of it is explained. We watch a few more scenes where one father is not a good hunter, and his family is forced to live off scraps ("the rear ends") from the others. Then it leaps forward about 15 years and we see the two boys, Atanarjuat and Atuat, all grown up. It's very difficult to tell everyone in the movie apart since they all look and dress pretty much the same, so I was lost for a while trying to figure out what the opening scene was all about and who was who. Eventually I realized (or so I thought) the plot didn't matter. This movie was really a documentary-styled story told without a commentator or talking head, and the point was to document a way of life that has either completely died off or is almost there. So I kicked back to just absorb the rhythms of the tribe only to be rudely awoken an hour and half later when Oki killed Atuat and tried to kill Atanarjuat. Whoa, the plot suddenly took center stage, and I realized this movie wasn't what I thought it was. This led to the film's signature scene, which is Atanarjuat running naked across the snow and ice of the frozen tundra for miles. It's really quite shocking, and Atanarjuat runs and runs and runs while being chased by Oki and his two brothers. The ocean hasn't completely frozen over yet so there are still pockets of water on the ice and between ice floes, and Atanarjuat falls into a few of them. I can't even imagine filming this. It's bad enough to be running barefoot across the ice and snow, but to fall bare naked into the water and then keep on running while soaking wet is too much. It's quite shocking, and it takes the movie into a whole new direction.

The last hour and a half leaves the documentary aspect behind and concentrates on the story. I think the story is the film's weakest part, mostly because the people aren't actors. I actually found this charming in the first half when I thought they were real people living in a camp loosely telling a story. In fact, this is how dumb I am. Until I saw the end credits I thought the filmmakers had located a remote tribe and asked them for permission to film while feeding them some limited direction and dialogue. I thought these people had probably never seen a television before, and they were just doing what they were asked. In a way, that's a testament to what a realistic job everyone did, because everything seems so authentic in a staged sort of way. The thing is, though, everything in the movie is real. They really kill all of the animals, which is something you never see, and they skin them, eat them, tan their hides, etc. The entire movie is shot on location, and there's never a sense that these people haven't lived their entire lives there. They get in trouble, though, when they have to stage violence because it never looks realistic. That's also true of every scene which involves any sort of emotion, and the poor acting makes the viewer step outside of the faked reality that we're watching. At those points it's like watching a reality show filmed with recreations instead of watching the action live.

At three hours, this movie is quite a haul. Is it too long? I think it depends on its purpose, which I was never quite able to figure out. If it's a document of an ancient way of life, three hours isn't too long. If it's a drama created by the local community theater, three hours is way too long. This is a combination of the two, and as such I think it's definitely too long. It could have been chopped to two hours pretty easily and still tell its story while recreating the Inuit way of life. Still, I definitely recommend the film to the right people (you know who you are). I think it was important for the Inuits to make this movie using an Inuit cast and mostly Inuit crew, and the details of the way these people eked out a living in this harsh environment is fascinating. Overall I think it's a beautiful testament to man's struggle to survive and to society's need to tame our inner demons.

Reviewed by Bill Alward 
March 12, 2003
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