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After winning the 2001 Camera dor for best first feature at Cannes and sweeping Canadas film awards, the worlds first movie entirely in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit of the northern Arctic, finally opened in Canadian theatres on April 12.

Set amidst the stark beauty of the eastern Arctic landscape of sea ice, tundra and rocky flatlands, Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) depicts how evil in the form of an unknown shaman has upset the balance of the local community.

Two brothers, Amaqjuaq (the Stronger One) and Atanarjuat challenge the new evil order. Atanarjuat wins the heart of a woman, Atuat, away from Oki, the arrogant son of the leader of the village. In revenge, Oki and his friends attack the summer tent where the two bothers are sleeping.

They manage to kill Amaqjuaq with their spears, but Atanarjuat miraculously escapes by running away naked over the spring sea ice (among the most dramatic scenes in the film). The question for the surviving brother is whether or not he can ever escape the cycle of vengeance.

There are no figures on how well this three-hour depiction of a 1,000-year-old Inuit legend of revenge and redemption is doing at the box office against the usual and predictable Hollywood fare. But Atanarjuat has been drawing large crowds in cities like Toronto, where audiences have warmly applauded the ending.

Universal human themes

The tale has attracted interest because of its universal human themes, stated Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood in an interview with the Globe and Mail newspapers. She compared the film to the work of William Shakespeare and Homer.

Although European Christian missionaries stamped out the shamanistic practices of the Inuit, they could not eliminate their story telling, which is how the films editor, Zacharias Kunuk, became familiar with Atanarjuat.

When the missionaries forced their religion on us, story telling and drum dancing were almost banned, says Kunuk on the films Internet site. Our film Atanarjuat is one way of bringing back lost traditions. I have never witnessed shamanism. I have only heard about it. One way of making itvisible is to film it.

Kunuk and his almost entirely Inuit crew and cast (many of whom had never acted before) made every effort to maintain the authenticity of an ancient Arctic community in Igloolik, the directors village where the movie was filmed. All the women in Atanarjuat , for instance, appear with braided hair and elaborate tattoos on their faces.

A cottage industry of artists and designers developed while local people re-learned traditional skills so they could create hunting implements, household objects and dogsleds from animal bone, stone, antler and ivory. They also fashioned kayaks, tents and costumes from animal skins.

Both Kunuk and cinematographer Norm Cohn — one of the few non-Inuit involved in the project — are accomplished video artists and it shows in the movie, says University of Toronto film studies professor Bart Testa. Atanarjuat didnt just come out of nowhere, says Testa. Cohns work is very slow and meditative.

Government funding

Kunuk and Cohn, who also produced the movie, had to get past various barriers to make Atanarjuat , including convincing the Canadian government funding agency, Telefilm, to hand over US$1.2 million. Atanarjuat did not fit the Telefilm criteria because it was not being made in either of Canadas official languages — English or French. (Theatre-goers watch the movie in Inuktitut, with either English or French subtitles).

Despite its success to-date, one insider doubts Atanarjuat will have a major impact on the art-house oriented Canadian film industry because of the ethnographic nature of its story, community and characters. The movie is very remote from the North American experience, says Wyndam Wise, editor of Take One , the Toronto-based film industry trade publication.

But Testa suggests there may be an undercurrent of sour grapes on the part of Wise and his industry colleagues.

No other Canadian film has garnered the attention or international praise for originality, as has Atanarjuat , he says. This is the irony of a Canadian film doing well (in Europe especially) because it is relies on all of the Canadian stereotypes of aboriginal culture, the north, says Testa.

On the other hand, an obviously non-Hollywood commercial film like Atanarjuat could only have been made in a country like Canada, where public and government support are strong, adds the film instructor. (IPS)