Atanarjuat
(The Fast Runner) is a Canadian film featuring the Inuits
of the Arctic Circle. Featuring a mythic story, handed down
through oral tradition over the generations, Atanarjuat
is primarily of anthropological interest. Most of the 172
minutes of film footage deals with how a small indigenous
population manages to stay alive in Igloolik, Nunavut Territory,
perhaps the most forbidding and remote small community on
earth. The diet, hardly appetizing to filmviewers, consists
of whatever animals can be caught--caribou, fish, rabbit,
seal, walrus, and bird's eggs. Indeed, the better part of
the day is spent foodgathering, with nighttime music, dance,
and storytelling to occupy those who are not entirely exhausted
from the work of the day. The various garments worn by the
Inuits are extremely heavy even during summer months, and
they wear out and need replacement each year. Igloos provide
the principal shelter, though tents suffice during the brief
summers. The various families are close knit, and each generation
is careful to ensure that the next will take care of them
when they become older and feebler, so conflicts are kept
to a minimum. However, the story begins with a curse. Oki
(played by Peter-Henry Arnatslaq), who was betrothed to Atuat
(played by Sylvia Ivalu), is disappointed because she prefers
Atanarjuat (played by Natar Ungalaaq). One day Oki and his
two brothers gang up on Atanarjuat and his brother Amaqjuaa
(played by Pakak Innukshuk); after first collapsing the tent
where they are sleeping in the nude, the trio starts stabbing
inside the tent, and soon Amaqjuaa dies. Atanarjuat then bolts
out and starts to sprint naked, sometimes with snow underfoot
and other times falling into icy streams, until he outruns
the trio to reach a small family, who in turn nurse him back
to health. When Atanarjuat finally returns to Igloolik, Oki
has even secretly murdered his own father to assume control
of the clan. After constructing his own igloo nearby, Atanarjuat
offers fresh meat to the trio. While they eat, he steps out
of the igloo to get a club and returns to attack the trio,
but he chivalrously stops short of killing them in revenge.
Thereafter, the oldest woman in the clan, the one whose husband
had been murdered, orders the trio banished. (One daughter,
who tried to sleep with Amaqjuaa and thus caused a lot of
trouble, was also banished.) The equilibrium of the extended
family returns to normal, with Atanarjuat as the new head
of the clan. As a reminder of the harsh life of the Inuits,
two of the principal actors died before the film, directed
by Zacharias Kunuk, was completed. Nevertheless, the many
actors with Christian names reveal the subtext of Atanarjuat,
namely, that the Inuit way of life is dying out, so the film
may be the only way to preserve what is left of the culture.
MH
I
want to comment on this film
