The Arctic, 1922: Innuit Apak (Leah Angutimarik), the daughter of
shaman Avva (Pakak Innukshuk) and a shaman herself, is only in her
mid-20's, but she has lived through great tragedy: Her first lover,
Nuqallaq (Natir Ungalaaq), was chased away from the tribe because he has
helped the whites, her husband has been butally killed by a man who
wanted her, and her current husband - a clumsy compensation for the death
of her first hubby - she simply detests ... if she cares to notice him at
all. Instead she is having sex with her dead husband (which looks
suspiciously like masturbating).
One day a group of Danish explorers stops by Apak's tribe, to explore
the innuit lifestyle ... and to persuade the tribe to take them to another
Innuit village, far up North. To everyone's surprise, Avva agrees, and
soon enough, the whole tribe heads North, which turns out to be a perilous
journey marked by many losses (mostly sleighdogs though). Finally they
make it to the other village, to realize the other tribe has become
Christians. Avva's tribe of course detests the Christian lifetyle ... but
by and by everyone realizes that the Christians have the far better food
and don't adhere to ancient Innuit traditions ... and by and by, Avva's
tribe joins the other tribe - and when Avva himself joins the Christians
as well, it is only three people of his tribe who just refuse to change
sides ...
Now this is just my opinion, and it might sound odd, but: The Arctic
is a great scenery for all kinds of great drama ripe for the picking.
Unfortunately, great drama The Journals of Knud Rasmussen is not, it's
a carelessly written film that lacks highlights, excitement, tension,
suspense, interesting characters and whatever else there is, plus it
totally fails to exploit the great Arctic landscapes. Instead the film
makes a few half-hearted attempts at documentary agout hte Innuit
lifestyle - but is then too lazy to explain what exactly is going on - and
often relies on (at best) mediocre actors to tell incongruent stories or
sing traditional songs really badly.
It's such a pity, this film could have been great if more effort would
have been put into the script and direction ... but as it is, it's just a
bad film. If you want to see good Arctic drama, you still have to
go all the way back to the silent groundbreaking documentary Nanook
of the North (1922, Robert J.Flaherty) !
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