A Wider Angle Film Series: ATANARJUAT: THE FAST RUNNER

For November, A Wider Angle, our monthly film series highlighting independent global cinema, is proud to present a special screening of the 2001 Canadian epic Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. Directed by Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk, it was the first feature film ever to be written, produced, directed, and acted entirely in the Inuktitut language with an all Indigenous cast. The critically acclaimed film received the prestigious Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere, and won six Genie Awards (Canada's version of the Oscars) including Best Motion Picture. In 2015, a poll at the Toronto International Film Festival named it the greatest Canadian film of all time.

Drawing comparisons to The Iliad, the film is an adaptation of an ancient Inuit legend passed down orally over centuries. Set in an ancient Arctic village at the dawn of the first millennium, an evil spirit in the form of an unknown shaman divides the community and upsets its spirit. The repercussions are felt twenty years later, when a tribal leader's envy of Atanarjuat's marriage to his two wives leads to the murder of Atanarjuat's brother, forcing him to flee for his life across the sea ice in a desperate, and sometimes supernatural, struggle of survival.

Due to the film's longer running time, this month's screening will begin at 5:30 p.m. rather than the normal start time.

In Inuktitut with English subtitles. (Running time 172 minutes)

Click here to read a review of the film by Roger Ebert.

A Wider Angle film series is made possible through funding provided by the Friends of the Library.