The necessities of life
by Doug Hodgkinson
Director; Benoit Pilon, starring: Natar Ungalaaq (Tivii), Paul Andre Brasseur (Kaki), Eveline Gelinas (Nurse Carole), 102 minutes; subtitles, 2008.
In the 1950s, Canada's Inuit people experienced a devastating epidemic of tuberculosis. Upon diagnosis, patients were immediately shipped out of the North to sanitariums in Southern Canada. Tivii, an Inuit hunter living on Baffin Island, is diagnosed aboard a hospital ship in a regular check-up. He is not allowed to leave the ship but his wife and two daughters are required to disembark immediately. He arrives in Quebec City after three months at sea. The staff in the church run sanitarium are caring and sympathetic, if a bit condescending. None of them speaks Inuktitut and he does not speak French. The world is very strange; the beautiful autumn trees block the view; he has to wear pajamas and sleeps in a busy ward; he has no idea how to eat spaghetti with a fork and spoon. He is very isolated and falls into a depression of loneliness and worry about provision for his family back on Baffin Island.
Without any real plan about what he would do Tivii escapes from the hospital. The first time, he leaves in a dressing gown into a snowstorm and is retrieved quickly. The second time, he steals a coat and clothes (his own grubby furs have been burned) and is gone for several days, finally found in a cabin in the forest, obviously a very sick person. This failure tips him over the edge and he determines to starve himself to death.
His nurse (Carole) hits upon the idea of getting a young orphaned Inuit boy, Kaki, from another sanitarium transferred to act as a bridge between Tivii and the rest of the hospital world. Slowly, Tivii regains hope and strength. When he expresses surprise that Kaki speaks both Inuktitut and “the White Language” Kaki replies dismissively, "Well, it isn’t hard!"
Tivii responds by telling stories, carving, drawing and making string figures as a way of reclaiming his identity as an Inuk. He also devises a plan to adopt Kaki in order to take him back to an Inuit culture where "all the necessities of life" are to be found (language, space, caribou and family). A priest who had been a missionary in Igloolik and who speaks Inuktitut fluently helps him in his dealing with the church bureaucracy. (One wonders why it took so long in the process to find him!) The church does not fare well at this point in the story. The bishop seems only concerned to know that Tivii is married and that his children are baptized. Tivii later sniggers to Kaki that while he answered truthfully, the priest told the bishop what he wanted to hear.
Alas, Kaki dies from a haemorrhage before this plan can be implemented. At the graveside Tivii looks around at the beautiful trees and flowers and comments, “This is no place for an Inuk to be buried!” When we last see Tivii, he is in a tent surrounded by his family in a barren landscape — the necessities!
Fragments of scripture might come to mind in viewing this film, e.g. "Singing the Lord's song in a strange land" (how can the soul live in isolation and loneliness?) and "a child shall lead them." But truly, it is the young Kaki who is a Christ figure who helps Tivii come to himself, move out of his self absorbed desire for death and to live more fully as a thankful and self giving person.
This touching and sentimental movie won six Genies and was nominated for an Oscar in the foreign (Canadian!) film category. Natar Ungalak and Zacharias Kunuk are friends and fellow carvers who finally sold enough of their art to buy second hand camera equipment to make Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) in which Ungalaaq starred.
