Tuesday, May 1st - 7:00 -Bell Auditorium (Best Of The Fest)   Director: Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn   Death of spirits or physical death? Banishment of ancient beliefs? Here we are witness to momentous events, the stuff of Shakespeare. The great shaman Avva and his beautiful daughter Apak (also gifted with spiritual powers) are estranged from their community (whose members have been converted to Christianity by missionaries).

At this moment, the Fifth Thule Expedition (1922), led by a Greenland Danish-Inuit explorer, arrives from across the vast glittering Arctic snowfields. Knud Rasmussen (who speaks Inuktitut) travels with Avva and Apak’s family back to their troubled community, aware of Avva’s forebodings. His journals record his observations of what ensued. Today, some still sing the songs from the time before their people were forbidden to practice or even speak of their ancient beliefs in the powers of spirit helpers.  Directors Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn -- who gave us the brilliant Arctic classic Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, a dramatization of a thousand-year-old tale involving a vendetta and a purging of evil -- tell a different kind of tale here. The film is often slowly-paced on the surface, dramatic and deep underneath. More of storytelling than of action, Iglulik (mostly untrained) actors bring to life this critical time as they play their grandparents and mysterious spirit guides (embedded within human forms). Danish actors play the visitors.

Opening Night Feature at the Toronto Film Festival, 2006

Cast: Pakak Innuksuk, Leah Angutimarik, Neeve Irngaut, Natar Ungalaaq, Samueli Ammaq, Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq, Catherine Alaralak, Abraham Ulayuruluk, Jens Jørn Spottag, Kim Bodnia, Jakob Cedergren, Tommy Uttak, Apayata Kotierk, Cora Akkitirq, Racheal Uyarasuk

In Inuktitut & Danish with English subtitles, Canada/Denmark, 112 minutes, 2006, 35mm

Presented by: Consulate General of Canada