Just saw this movie last night. A low budget (entire thing shot on a digital camera) Inuit-language (English subtitles) film about love, revenge, passion, determination, and triumph that got incredible reviews upon its release a couple of years ago. Indeed, everything I read about the film made it sound like it might be one of the most amazing things to have ever been put on film.
It was good, and extremely interesting. The "Holy Shit!" factor was very high with respect to the lifestyle and harsh environment that was portrayed. The Inuit actors, almost all in their first film roles, also did a really good job. It fell a little short for me in the simplicity of the dialogue. Did the nuance & depth of the words lose something in the translation? Almost certainly. But, if this film is made for wider consumption, one would think they'd take ever step possible to preserve the craft of the original scriptwriter in the subtitling.
The culture, customs, interactions, and everything else about these people is totally in-your-face. I was put back on my heels just a bit because of the visceralness (is that a word) of everything on the screen. Perhaps it was thought that telling a story about powerful, yet basic human concepts (love, revenge, etc.) would benefit from being presented in a very stark setting using very simple dialogue. Almost fairy-tale like. Indeed, I read an AllMovie.com synopsis that indicates it was based on an Inuit legend.
All in all, I'd definitely recommend the movie. Always good to see what you can do with (relatively) little money, but a great concept. Very educational, pretty inspiring, and definitely not something you're gonna get at the local cineplex.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
Interesting - hadn't heard of it.
Read an article on Norwegian seal hunters recently. Still doing it the old fashioned way, but their lifestyle is threatened by disappearing sea ice. Fascinating relationship between man and dog and nature.
A life that I am not equipped to partake in, but one that I can respect.
My thoughts exactly, watching the movie last night. There was seal hunting, bird hunting, and egg gathering. It's a crazy sort of existence, relative to what we're accustomed. 90% of your waking hours are spent in endeavors geared towards meeting your most basic of needs. Sharon had a rough sort of glimpse of that in Paraguay. Her survival wasn't so touch-and-go, but by the time she cooked by candlelight, washed clothes by hand, peeled all the botflies off of her pets, etc., there weren't a lot of other hours left in the day.
Interesting philisophical discussion: being higher on Maslow's Pyramid theoretically leads to more intellectually rewarding pursuits, but possibly a less rewarding lifestyle, minute-to-minute.
Was it at the library or your favorite Video hut?
Library-but I'm sure Video Universe has it. It's obscure, but not overly so-it won the biggest prize, or one of the biggest prizes at Cannes, I think.
Forgot to mention one intense scene, where he's ambushed in his tent and has to take off running across the ice, buck-naked. He runs all day and into the next day (hence: fast-runner). His feet (incredible makeup job-God, I hope it was makeup) of the bottom of his feet as one enormous, bloody, popped blister. Made me squirm. Made me also have a momentary glimpse into the future at Gibbs' feet in Escalante, were he to end up going.
Maybe all of our feet.
I'm planning on my feet being pretty ready for this. Perhaps not so, my lilly-white skin.
Post a Comment