The Fast Runner

REVIEW
The Fast Runner, the first Inuktitut-language film, has been received in the film community with great acclaim. Among its many awards are the Camera d’Or for First Film (2001 Cannes Film Festival), Best Canadian Film (2001 Toronto Film Festival), and five Genies (Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Original Score, Editing). The Fast Runner is based on an Eskimo legend, passed down through thousands of years of oral history, of two feuding families under the curse of a shaman and a beautiful girl caught between them. The girl is Atuat (Ivalu), promised to Oki (Amatsiaq), the son of the less-than-noble ruler Sauri (Ipkarnak). But Atuat is attracted to Atanarjuat (Ungalaaq), who with his brother must hunt for food to survive the unforgiving tundra. Oki and Sauri find out about their illicit but fated romance and prove to be as much a match for Atanarjuat as the harsh environment. The spectacular set piece sees Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner, relentlessly pursued naked across ice and snow by those who would kill him. Yet that is just the cinematic highlight of Kunuk’s remarkably photographed film. The story is mythic, the environment otherworldly, the film experience unforgettable. (Inuktitut with English subtitles)