Atanarjuat is a new film from Canada, apparently the first film made in the Inuit language. It's based on an ancient Inuit story which has been passed down as oral history for hundreds of years, and is now put on the screen by director Zacharias Kunuk.

The story begins when an evil shaman passes through an isolated and hitherto peaceful village. The story flashes forward twenty years, when the spirit of the community is still divided. By this time Atanarjuat and his brother Amaqjuaq have become adults, and conflict arises between them and Oki, the son of the village chief, when Atanarjuat wins the woman who's been pledged as Oki's wife. The conflict escalates to the point of murder before too long, and Atanarjuat is forced to flee the village, which he does in an amazing sequence where he runs naked across miles and miles of ice pursued by Oki and his henchmen.

Atanarjuat is a very long film, running nearly three hours and paced accordingly. It also makes relatively few concessions to the usual ideas of acceptable Western-style narrative, and there are a few scenes (including the opening one) which could be construed as obscure and confusing at first, particularly those scenes which involve some supernatural element. Still, everything does fall into place and most of the film is easily followed. The film also has to its credit a real and impressive feeling of mythic otherworldliness. This is a story very much located in a space and time of its own.

Which is why I'm kind of disappointed at the choice to shoot the film entirely on digital video, even though I know it was done as a budgetary consideration. For the most part the video-to-film transfer is pretty good, and it's usually only in the darker passages that you really notice much graininess. But with the sort of landscape the film is set in, it really screams to be filmed in proper 35mm or even 70mm widescreen. On the plus side, the mostly amateur performances are generally very good; several of the performers are actually making their acting debut in the film, which is also the feature debut for its director Zacharias Kunuk.

Atanarjuat has been drawing a lot of "instant classic"-type acclaim since its release in 2001. I'm a little hesitant to throw words like "masterpiece" at it as quite a few other reviewers have been doing; I don't think the film's quite that good. But if you're willing to give this film the time and attention it deserves, then I think you'll find it pretty interesting.