Desafio no Ártico

Every once and a while a movie comes along that is meant to be, in my humble opinion, seen. The Snow Walker is that movie.

The storyline is simple: a bush pilot is asked to bring a young sick Inuit girl to a Yellowknife hospital but the plane crashes in the Canadian tundra. As simple as that. What develops between the two characters is a bond that only two people trying to survive in that situation could experience.

Charles Martin Smith's direction is perfect. He gives both Barry Pepper and Annabella Piugattuk free rein in their performances that gives us the impression of improvisation. Their friendship enfolds slowly, as any friendship would, if you where with a stranger battling the tundra, which in this movie, is almost like a third character. As flat and as barren as the tundra may appear, it is shot in such a way that has your eye searching for detail as if you were looking at a painting.

The Snow Walker is an example of straightforward storytelling that proves the fact that less is sometimes more. There are no car chases, no gunfights and yet I found myself completely engrossed. I came upon this movie by chance when I read the review in a local newspaper that gave it 4 stars and yet I never saw a single trailer or advertisement for it.

What a shame that this great movie will not be seen by a larger audience.

A tale of survival, The Snow Walker is the story of a Canadian hot shot pilot who flies a single engine prop plane into the Canadian wilderness near Manitoba on a regular basis. One day, Charlie drops off some drums at a remote area where he meets some Inuit Eskimoes who give him a pair of valuable ivory tusks as trade in order to have him take back a young woman to a hospital, as she is coughing up blood and may have tuberculosis. He reluctantly agrees, and while on the journey, the plane breaks down and they crash land in the middle of nowhere. He jumps up and down, cursing their dilemma, while the Eskimo girl calmly uses a piece of string to catch fish. Her outdoor skills are formidable, and he soon realizes that she is much better then he is in the great outdoors. They walk a long way and eventually he decides it would be better to return to the plane to await a rescue. They set up camp and most of the film shows the two learning to communicate and teaching each other their very uncommon cultures. The scenery is beautiful, and the young actress a natural, which makes The Snow Walker a trip worth taking.

My wife and I are educators who spent 9 years in Nunavut and presently work in the NWT. In fact I was the Principal in Igloolik for four years and Anabelle was one of my students. I am very proud of her for the truth she brings to this role in creating a wonderful character . Unlike every other film about the North except Atanarjuat this movie struck my wife and I as "true" It had an accurate depiction of Inuit culture, white arrogance and colliding cultures.

We think Pepper's character was white-washed a bit..... selling cola to Bathurst? Well we know that a lot of bush pilots made their fortune on the Whiskey trade but I guess this would have made the pilot a harder sell for redemption. As for another commentator suggesting he made every survival mistake in the book...he seems about as bright as most new-comers to the Arctic, myself included. If we stay and survive we get smarter in a hurry though.

What we liked is that the characters went beyond stereotypes, Pepper's character went through an amazing learning arc and was treated with respect. This is not a cartoon buffoon though he starts that way. The gentleness and power of Inuit culture is on display but Annabelle is not a cartoon either. Her humanity and sense of humour come through wonderfully.

The struggle for survival is a bit optimistic but hey... We were still able to suspend our disbelief. The land came alive in a way that made us both homesick for Nunavut. Fantastic.....

Pijuyuk, Annabelle.

We meet Charlie Halliday, a young bush pilot, as he and his friends are spending a night of drinking and just having fun. Halliday, and his friends, are mean toward one Inuit man that comes to the tavern trying to sell them a little animal skin. Little prepares this young man for what happens to him the following day.

Director Charles Martin Smith does wonders in this movie. The action takes us all over the Canadian arctic tundra. The director, and his cinematographers, captured in all its glory this part of the vast country most of us will never see. This movie celebrates the human instinct of survival and deals with how Halliday, a man who clearly shows his disdain toward the Inuit, at the beginning of the film, has to depend on a young girl that shows him a thing or two about how to survive in that hostile climate.

Barry Pepper surprises us in the film in the way he portrays Halliday. We see the transformation, for the better, as he realizes how his salvation depends on Kanaalaq. Annabella Pingattuk, who plays the young Inuit girl is an asset in the film. James Cromwell is seen as Shepherd, the man in charge of the pilots.

"The Snow Walker" shows a lesson in acceptance, and endurance when all hope is lost by a person. Thanks to Charles Martin Smith and his collaborators for a satisfying film.

I hired 'Wimbledon' but upon opening the case there was the wrong disc. Instead it was this film called 'The Snow Walker'. Had full intentions of taking it straight back to the video store but it was late at night and figured I'd just put it on while I did something else.

I found myself fully engrossed in this film. It was such a nice simple story that's been wonderfully acted. Some of the scenery was nice and what was there was very well shot. Good use of what was available. The music really fit the film well.

Sometimes the films that we have no intention of watching turn out to be nice little surprises.