Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner

2002
7.4| 2h52m| R| en| More Info
Released: 01 February 2002 Released
Producted By: Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc.
Country: Canada
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

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.

Genre

Fantasy, Drama

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Director

Zacharias Kunuk

Production Companies

Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc.

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Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner Audience Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic
Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
William H. Shannon "The Fast Runner" is sometimes beautiful to look at, and in its immediacy it is at times able to transport the viewer to another time and place.But this is a bad film. In terms of storytelling, editing and narrative, it just doesn't make any sense. I found myself taken out of the film as much as I was immersed in it due to the poor film-making techniques.I'm sure that there are some people who were generally moved by this film, and it has a few very compelling moments. But as a film overall, I can't imagine how it gets such universal acclaim, especially considering its sub-AV Club technique. (I hate to call anyone's motives into question, but I tend to think that more than a few people who heap praise upon this film are doing so out of a need to praise this plucky group of Inuits for making a film at all. I think it's less condescending to evaluate it out of context.)
gsh999 I have never seen a documentary about the Inuit which taught me as much about these people than Atanarjuat. The strength, skill, and endurance of the Inuit is astonishing. They survive in a vast, frigid, yet beautiful place on Earth. This film gives us a good look at that faraway place and those incredible people. I was fascinated from beginning to end.The story involves good and evil in men, greed, jealousy, betrayal, love. Two men in the Inuit community develop a feud over a beautiful girl and violence results. The Inuit actors give performances so flawless they cannot be critiqued. Very highly recommended for the well-done suspenseful story, incredible scenery and revelation of the Inuit lifestyle. For those who do not mind subtitles, it doesn't get much better.
lelia-agostinho Atanarjuat is a beautiful film. To capture images in the ice, with so much light reflecting all over can be complicated, but Atanarjuat is a movie where this becomes an art. Against the white bright snow landscape people become really significant. It's amazing how we people can live in such a place. Atanarjuat came to the little village (3,500 inhabitants) where I live, in Alentejo, Portugal, about 3 years ago, but I'll never forget it. This film expanded my perception on how we can be human in so many different ways and in so many different places. The cold, the white, the snow and the light make a wonderful dream. The most incredible for me is how the people who made the movie were able to show the amazing diversity of beauty in what could be said a rather monotonous landscape. The story is so rooted in it and so universally human, at the same time, that this film is for all of us.
noralee "Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)" is a perfect movie for a hot, summer day -- ice, snow, freezing water and cold wisps of breath as far as the horizon and beyond. But beyond the "Nanook of the North"-type, docudrama fascination with seeing how to really build an igloo, this first Inuit production is a gripping epic. Like the movie "Kandahar," the honest verisimilitude of a world we would never see on our own by native filmmakers and actors adds immeasurably to the experience.I was confused by the prologue with its flash backs and flash forwards and it took me a bit to sort the characters out. But once I did I felt like I was watching a primal universal story unfold, with the same very humanness of Genesis and Greek and Roman myths -- sexual attraction, seductive vs. loyal women (ah, all through time and space men think with the same part of their anatomy!), sibling rivalry, jealousy, elder wisdom, natural leadership, playful children, the search for food and supporting a family, and --as always -- seeking an explanation for man's violent tendencies. Here's it's all compounded by the exigencies of living in a very difficult environment where enemies perforce have to cooperate to survive, and privacy and independence can be death. I absolutely got completely swept up in the story; if the audience wasn't a bunch of senior citizens they probably would have joined in my involuntary oohs and aahs at the dastardly acts of villains, the struggles and revenge by the hero (particularly his amazing naked escape over a glacier), the beautiful smiles of the women, and the victory of true love -- and reaction to the solution unique to their culture. These are not stereotypes but towering mythic figures given life and cold breath.Over the credits, we see how they shot this film in excruciatingly difficult situations for both actors and film crew. The cinematography is particularly outstanding as our eyes adjust to the differences in micro-climates (and it is sometimes summer - time for caribou hunting).The music, however, is disappointing -- rather than native sounds we hear a melange of world music from Shanachie CDs, including throat singing from the other side of the world -- what's with that? (originally written 7/7/2002)