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THE FAST RUNNER (ATANARJUAT) Send This Review to a Friend
The 2002 New Directors/New Films series, presented as usual by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, scored an unusual coup by showing "The Fast Runner" ("Atanarjuat"), a monumental job of filmmaking set in the Arctic, spoken in the Inuktitut language and, save for a lead actor, casting non-professionals in the drama that is based on an Inuit legend. The visually splendid work recalls the classic 1922 documentary "Nanook of the North," only this is a drama, yet one with a feeling of utter reality.
"The Fast Runner," now in commercial release by Lot 47 Films, has been directed by Zacharias Kunuk from a screenplay by the late Paul Apak Angilirq, and the extraordinary cinematography that so vividly captures the look of this frigid part of the world is by Norman Cohn. The film was shot in the community of Igloolik, where about 1200 people live on a small island in the Canadian Arctic. The landscape, with all of the sea ice and the forbidding rocky terrain, virtually becomes a character in the film, and the need to build winter refuges to survive and the daily struggle for minimal existence add to the film's portrait of life under these demanding circumstances.
Against this background the tale unfolds about groups of nomads locked in struggles for power and rivalry over women. While we are made privy to the everyday lives of the characters, probably the most fascinating aspect of the film, we also follow the actions of loyalty and betrayal, including murder. When director Kunuk was present at the series to help promote the film, he said that there was only one professional actor, Natar Ungalaaq, who has the title role of Atanarjuat. The others, the director said, were not experienced, and it is astonishing how well Kunuk succeeded in making them all so convincing. The film is nearly three hours long, but that should not deter anyone, as the experience of watching this movie is so compelling that the time passes more quickly than it does for many a film half its length.
When a film such as this comes along--and the "such as this" is stretching the point because "The Fast Runner" is so unique--there is an injection of new hope for the ability of cinema to expand its horizons and give audiences fresh experiences that stand out in the crowd of movies that vie for our attention. A Lot 47 Films release.
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