Loosely based on John Ford’s epic The Searchers, Maliglutit is the story of an Inuk man, Kuanana, and a band of men who set out across the barren Arctic in search of the marauders who have killed his parents and son, and kidnapped his wife and daughter. With only three bullets to their name, the men hunt both for food and for vengeance.
Like Ford’s masterpiece, Zacharias Kunuk's Maliglutit explores the repercussions of violence and revenge, asking whether these Inuk have begun to act like those who have torn apart their family. Very unlike Ford, Kunuk questions not only the colonial ideology inherent to the western genre, but also the possibility of justice in a seemingly unjust world. With a tale as timeless as the landscape in which it is set, Canada’s foremost Inuk filmmaker has provided us with another stirring classic.
Director’s Biography
Zacharias Kunuk: Born in 1957 in Kapuivik, Nunavut, Zacharias Kunuk broke into the film scene with Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, which won the award for Best Canadian Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Caméra d'Or at Cannes. His other works as director include the feature The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, and the television documentary "Inuit Cree Reconciliation."
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