Synopsis
Based on a local legend and set in an unknown era, it deals with universal themes of love, possessiveness, family, jealousy and power. Beautifully shot, and acted by Inuit people, it portrays a time when people fought duels by taking turns to punch each other until one was unconscious, made love on the way to the caribou hunt, ate walrus meat and lit their igloos with seal-oil lamps.
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Cast
- Natar UngalaaqAtanarjuat
- Sylvia IvaluAtuat
- Peter-Henry ArnatsiaqOki
- Lucy TulugarjukPuja
- Pakak InnuksukAmaqjuaq (as Pakkak Innushuk)
- Madeline IvaluPanikpak
- Pauloosie QulitalikQulitalik / A shaman (as Paul Qulitalik)
- Eugene IpkarnakSauri, the chief
- Neeve IrngautUluriaq
- Abraham UlayurulukTungajuaq
Recommendations
- 100
Los Angeles Times
Nearly three hours long, and deliberately paced at that, this first feature ever in the Inuit language is a demanding experience. But the rewards for those who risk the journey are simply extraordinary. - 100
Variety
The first-ever screenplay written in the Inuit language, Inuktitut -- and the first time's a charm. - 100
New York Daily News
Don't miss The Fast Runner. If you do, you will deprive yourself of not only one of the most intriguing feature-film projects in decades and enough plain-spoken anthropology for three credits at Harvard, but one of the most flat-out entertaining movies of the year. - 100
Entertainment Weekly
Stunning, fully formed masterpiece. - 90
Slate
One of the most enthralling three hours you'll ever spend at the theater. - 89
Austin Chronicle
The perfect antidote to the summer heat in Austin, more refreshing even than a dip in our chilly holy waters of Barton Springs. - 88
Miami Herald
More than once during The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat), it's easy to forget you're watching a movie. - 88
Philadelphia Inquirer
This long (nearly three hours), revelatory movie is both a thrilling adventure about endurance and survival, and an elegiac examination of centuries-old tribal culture, fast-fading in the new millennium.
