SEARCHERS / MALIGLUTIT (2016)
Directed by Zacharias Kunuk & Natar Ungalaaq
94 minutes
"The Western goes Northern in Zacharias Kunuk's masterful third feature, co-directed with ATANARJUAT actor Natar Ungalaaq. Drawing inspiration from John Ford's seminal 1954 Western THE SEARCHERS (from which MALIGLUTIT takes its English title, sans article), this captivating, crystalline rescue-revenge story, set across the Arctic tundra of 1913 Nunavut, has an Inuk caribou hunter (Benjamin Kunuk) in pursuit of marauders who ravaged his home and abducted his wife. Co-writers Kunuk and Norman Cohn…cleverly absorb and undress the archetypes of the Western, telling a generic tale of violent retribution that forgoes the cowboy-'Indian' binary. Cinematographer Jonathan Frantz (also co-producer) captures the immensity of the barren frozen landscape on a scale befitting Ford's Monument Valley vistas. The cast, many non-actors, is entirely Inuit; Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq contributes to the soundtrack." –THE CINEMATHEQUE "With a tale as timeless as the landscape in which it is set, Canada's foremost Inuk filmmaker has provided us with another classic." –TIFF