Iqaluit, written and directed by Benoit Pilon - Eight out of 10

Iqaluit, written and directed by Benoit Pilon

Eight out of 10

Although unlikely to come to a theater near you or be programmed on prime time on a major channel, you could still probably find this film on demand; perhaps even find it on one of the Cinemax Channels, where it was available in our part of the world.

Iqaluit is not a film with The Rock – for no artistic reason, the highest paid actor a couple of years ago – but it is way better than a remake that stars this performer who has little to do with art

Gilles aka Francois Papineau is working in the Northern part of the world, where there is light at two at night, for half of the year, away from his wife Carmen aka Marie-Josee Croze for six months every year.

The film opens with a rather gruesome scene for animal lovers, especially the vegans that a recent The Economist article argues would save the world, given that eighty per cent of the agricultural land is used to raise cattle that pollute the atmosphere and send methane gas into the air – so much so that if there would be a country called The United Cattle they would be the seventh largest emitter of methane gas on the planet.

Two anglers are taking their boat to coast with two seals that would be placed on the floor in their house, then opened up and served by the whole family, including the baby boy, with all of them digging their fingers and covering them with the blood of the poor animals.

Gilles comes in and talks with Noah aka Natar Ungalaaq and his niece – actually his late wife’s niece – Ani aka Christine Tootoo, who has a baby who seems to be about one year old.

The white man Gilles plays some pool and has some drinks in a bar, where there appear to be fewer whites and more Inuit, but if you google for more information, you find on the net that the problem is there are now only about 50% of the Native people and English is becoming the dominant language, threatening Inuktitut that may eventually disappear.

Gilles is invited to join a few friends who want to move to another place, but he says he would finish his drink and then call it a night.

He is found in a critical state and taken to the hospital, while his wife is called and told by a police officer that they had received a call from an anonymous person who told them that there is an injured man.

Locals are suspicious of the police and they avoid contact as much as they can, says the man of the law, who seems to think the call is not suspicious and then specifies that they will wait for further developments.

Gilles eventually dies, an autopsy is needed for this is a death in uncertain circumstances and Carmen is trying to understand what happened, visits a bar and has too many drinks.

This is where she meets Noah, who is Inuit like his niece and evidently his son, Danny, and they talk about Gilles, who used to be Noah’s boss, but also a friend, with a more complicated relationship with the family than Carmen can now for the moment.

Since she has too much to drink, Noah has to take her and she wakes up in a tent, in the wild, not far from the sea where the Inuit intends to fish, something he makes clear when she says she wants to go back.

He shows her the direction wherein Iqaluit lies suggesting that she can walk there, but he has other business here, fishing looking like the least important of it.

The attitude of this interesting, appealing, serene, calm, Zen like character is very soothing, healing and he appears to have a positive influence over Carmen, up to the point where she has a breakdown.

For the widow understands that there was something between her late husband and Ani, furthermore, her baby was the son of her cheating spouse and she even hits the young woman, slapping her twice on the face.

It appears that the Inuit woman was only twenty when she started having an affair with the man who spent six months every year working in Iqaluit and tells the wife that he had never left her, even if Ani was the mother of his child.

Gradually, Carmen gets over the initial repulsion, hatred and aggressiveness and there are some tender moments when Ani and her boy are asleep next to her and the widow slowly and tenderly caresses the sleeping baby.

The situation is complicated when Danny, who is in love apparently with Ani and he had resented Gilles and generally the white men coming from the south and taking their Inuit women, takes the mother and her son away from Iqaluit.

Danny may do something terrible, considering the circumstances of Gilles ‘death – that would be clarified near the end of the motion picture – that could involve violence, perhaps killing, and eventually a long prison term.

Noah, his father, takes Carmen with him into the wild again, trying to convince his soon to abandon his foolish plan.

A very good drama, if not spectacular and filled with explosions like a movie with The Rock, The Avengers and the other cartoon characters.