Institute of Contemporary Arts

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, Dir Zacharias Kunuk, Canada 2001

Long ago in the Arctic territory of the Inuit nation, an evil spirit is summoned by a miscreant shaman to spread violence and discord, which leads to the death of the local chief, Kumaglak, at the hands of the usurper, Sauri who also proceeds to break the spirit of his other rival, Tulimaq. Years later, that conflict continues even when Tulimaq's sons, Amaqjuaq, the Strong One and Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner, have become the best hunters of their people. Sauri's short-fused son, Oki, becomes profoundly jealous of the brothers, and this increases when Atanarjuat fairly wins his betrothed. The conflict reaches its climax when an indiscretion on Amaqjuaq's part sparks an act of murderous vengeance that leaves Amaqjuaq dead and Atanarjuat fleeing naked into the wilderness to face certain death by exposure. Yet for all these events the curse has caused, Atanarjuat soon learns that there are forces that are coming to help him. However, he must also make fateful decisions that will determine the fate of him and his people.

Certificate: UK:15

Key cast / credits: Dir Zacharias Kunuk, Writer: Paul Apak Angilirq, Photography: Norman Cohn, Cast: Natar Ungalaaq, Sylvia Ivalu, Peter Henry Arnatsiaq

Running time: 161 mins
Release date: 2001

Country: Canada

Language:  Inuktitut w/English subtitles

Format available: 35mm/digi

Awards:

Winner Camera d'or for Best First Feature Film, Cannes
Canada's Official Selection - Foreign Language Oscar®
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Editing, Claude Jutra
Best Canadian Feature Film, 2001 Toronto International Film Festival
 

Press quotes:

"an extraordinary film, a work of narrative sweep and visual beauty that honors the history of the art form even as it extends its perspective." AO Scott, New York Times

"Mysterious, bawdy, emotionally intense, and replete with virtuoso throat singing, this three-hour movie is engrossing from first image to last, so devoid of stereotype and cosmic in its vision it could suggest the rebirth of cinema." Jim Hoberman, Village Voice

"a knockout ..a generational saga with many Homeric elements ­ love, jealousy, rivalry between young contenders, extraordinary feats of strength, resentments passed from fathers to sons, and crimes that beget consequences years later." Margaret Atwood, The Globe and Mail

"Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) is an astonishing epic film made by and about the Inuit peoples of the Canadian arctic, telling a story of a crime that ruptures the trust within a closely knit group, and how justice is achieved and healing begins.... [T]he three hour film was entirely shot on location, and shows the tenacity and creativity of a people making a home of a frigid wilderness." Roger Ebert, Chicago-Sun Times

"Zacharias Kunuk's feature film, the first made in the Inuit language, translates into a universal art form the shared mythic world of the people of the Canadian High Arctic." Hugh Brody, openDemomcracy