TIFF review: One Day In The Life Of Noah Piugattuk

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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. 

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