Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) - Zacharias Kunuk

grazie a Roger Ebert scopro che esiste questo film, lo guardo ed è davvero straordinario.
la tragedia greca e Shakespeare sembrano le fonti di questo film, in realtà si tratta di racconti tramandati dagli anziani.
interpreti perfetti, ambienti per noi inospitali, una regia e una sceneggiatura che non fanno una grinza.
dentro il film c'è tutta l'umanità, eterna: la viltà, il coraggio, la vendetta, il tradimento, l'amore, la lealtà, la famiglia, la vita, la morte, la natura spesso matrigna.
a Omero e Shakespeare questo film sarebbe piaciuto, un capolavoro quasi sconosciuto, voi cercatelo, non ve ne pentirete - Ismaele

We could begin with the facts about "The Fast Runner." It is the first film shot in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit peoples who live within the Arctic Circle. It was made with an Inuit cast, and a 90-percent Inuit crew. It is based on a story that is at least 1,000 years old. It records a way of life that still existed within living memory…

…At the end of the film, over the closing titles, there are credit cookies showing the production of the film, and we realize with a little shock that the film was made now, by living people, with new technology. There is a way in which the intimacy of the production and the 172-minute running time lull us into accepting the film as a documentary of real life. The actors, many of them professional Inuit performers, are without affect or guile: They seem sincere, honest, revealing, as real people might, and although the story involves elements of melodrama and even soap opera, the production seems as real as a frozen fish.

I am not surprised that "The Fast Runner" has been a box office hit in its opening engagements. It is unlike anything most audiences will ever have seen, and yet it tells a universal story. What's unique is the patience it has with its characters: The willingness to watch and listen as they reveal themselves, instead of pushing them to the front like little puppets and having them dance through the story. "The Fast Runner" is passion, filtered through ritual and memory.

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The film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner by Nunavut director Zacharias Kunuk is the number 1 Canadian film of all time, according to the fourth edition of Canada's All-Time Top Ten List.

Atanarjuat replaced the 1971 film Mon Oncle Antoine, which had been the long-standing favourite. Previous lists were released in 1984, 1993 and 2004.

The Toronto International Film Festival asked film insiders and academics from around the world what they think is the most memorable Canadian film ever.

Atanarjuat, which was shot in Nunavut and is entirely in Inuktitut, won the Camera D'Or prize for best first feature film at the Cannes International Film Festival when it was released in 2001…

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