ATANARJUAT (THE FAST RUNNER) (2002)  ***

Reviewed 7/7/02

Based on an ancient Inuit legend, the rather passive and weak but fast running Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaaq) successfully courts Atuat (Sylvia Ivalu), the betrothed of the unremittingly evil Oki (Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq), and then marries as his second wife, Oki’s sister Puja (Lucy Tulugarjuk, one of the cuter femme fatales in film history).  Oki does not take this sitting down (well, at first he does, but then…) and that leads to the film’s centerpiece, Oki and his men pursuing a naked Atarnajuat across the frozen tundra.   The plot is a little contrived (Puja ends up being just a plot device with incoherent motivations) and hokey (too much mysticism presented in rote fashion), but the main appeal of the movie is the astoundingly vivid Inuit setting – igloos, sled dogs, animal furs, raw meat, and the endless landscape that appears to belong to another world.  Director Zacharias Kanuk makes this legend quite down-to-earth, especially being frank in depicting bodily functions – belches, urination, and sexual intercourse.  The movie looks surprisingly good for a film shot on digital video, but it could have used a little trimming.  At 172 minutes, it’s about 30 minutes too long.