Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner | Atanarjuat |Dir: Zacharias Kunuk |Country: Canada

Year 2001, length 2h52

After the camp leader is murdered, the new leader Sauri drives his old rival Tulimaq down through mistreatment and ridicule. Years pass and power begins to change when the resentful Tulimaq has two sons – Amaqjuaq, The Strong One, and Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner. As the camp’s best hunters they provoke jealousy and rage in their rival, Oki, the leader’s ill tempered son. When The Fast Runner wins away Oki’s promised bride-to-be, the beautiful Atuat, Oki conspires to murder the brothers.

Based on an ancient Inuit legend that takes place in the Eastern Arctic wilderness near Igloolik at the dawn of the first millenium.

The Necessities of Life | Ce qu'il faut pour vivre |Dir: Benoît Pilon |Country: Canada

Year 2008, length 1h42

Winner of the Grand Prix des Ameriques as Best Film at the 2008 Montréal World Film Festival and Canada’s official entry in the Best Foreign Language Oscar race, “The Necessities of Life” is an absorbing and emotional tale from Québec director Benoît Pilon, making his feature film debut after a career making documentaries.

The film was inspired by a tuberculosis epidemic that broke out in the Inuit population of Canada’s Far North in the 1940s and 1950s. Natar Ungalaaq, the star of the international hit “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner” stars as a stricken man yanked from his isolated region and his family and tribe to a Québec City hospital, where he experiences both profound culture shock and unexpected human connections.

Of particular note are cinematographer Michel La Veaux’s terrific shooting, contrasting the urban landscape of Québec City with the spectacular Far North locations and the beautifully affecting film score by Robert Marcel Lepage.

The Journals of Knud Rasmussen | The Journals of Knud Rasmussen |Dir: Norman Cohn, Zacharias Kunuk|Country: Canada, Denmark, Greenland

Year:2006, Length 1h52

Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn, the team behind “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner” (the first film in the Inuit language of Inuktitut) bring another ground-breaking film set within and produced by the Inuit community.

This time their focus is on a pivotal moment in Inuit history when the people first encountered European explorers and Christianity. Around 1922 the Danish explorer and anthropologist Knud Rasmussen journeyed to the Canadian Arctic to record the stories and beliefs of the local tribes, and this quest forms a springboard from which their stories are told within this film. Focusing on the Inuit leaders, Avva the last great shaman (played by his descendent, Pakak Innukshuk) and Umik the Inuk who led the conversion to Christianity; the stories are narrated by Avva’s daughter Apak.

Before Tomorrow | Le jour avant le lendemain |Dir: Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Ivalu |Country: Canada

Year 2008, length 1h33

Ningiuq and her best friend Kutuujuk are elders in an Inuit family in the mid-nineteenth century. During the summer, their community comes together with a neighbouring family to tell stories, marry the young, and share food. But Ningiuq is worried: Kutuujuk is sick and stories about the Europeans’ impending advance are gaining momentum. After a particularly bountiful catch, Ningiuq, her grandson Maniq and Kutuujuk volunteer to dry the fish, on a remote island, where Kutuujuk faces her final days. Ningiuq senses that all is not well at home, and when no one comes to pick them up, Ningiuq and Maniq start the journey home themselves – only to discover that Ningiuq’s worst fears may have come true.

A debut feature from directors Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu, “Before Tomorrow” poetically brings Canadian history to life onscreen. Based on the book “Før Morgendagen” by famed Danish author Jørn Riel, the film is reminiscent of Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn’s groundbreaking films “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner” and “The Journals of Knud Rasmussen”.