ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF NOAH PIUGATTUK SPEC D: Zacharias Kunuk. Canada. 111 minutes. Sep 13, 6 pm, Winter Garden. Rating: NNNN
Directed by Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner’s Kunuk, One Day In The Life Of Noah Piugattuk illustrates Inuit-colonial relationships brilliantly.
The film, spoken in Inuktitut and set in 1961 in Kapuivik, on Baffin Island, begins very slowly and wordlessly with a nomadic family’s morning tea. The momentum picks up when a hunting trip, led by the Elder Noah (Apayata Kotierk), is interrupted by an Inuit translator and a white government employee, known as “Boss” (Kim Bodnia, from Killing Eve), who wants to convince Noah that he must move to a settlement.
The film flips the colonial narrative on its head by showing the exchange – full of mistranslations, jokes in Inuktitut that go untranslated and misunderstandings – through an Inuit lens.
Stay for the end, with a surprise bit of footage from the real Piugattuk.
