Atanarjuat, “The Fast Runner” is one of the 2001 film based originally on the Inuktitut Canadian language, the epic film is directed by Zacharias Kunuk who is the Inuit filmmaker. The film is a life-threatening struggle of jealousy, love, revenge and murder between supernatural and compelling characters. With the movie of the language of the movie shot being Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit people who lived within the Artic Circle based on a story that is one thousand years old, expressing a way of life that is existing within living memory.

Director Zacharias Kunak can create new film direction with “The Fast Runner” film through storytelling; the film is all about romantic tensions that in the long term resulted to tragedy within the closely knit community of people who rely on each other to survive (IsumaTV). The surrounding is covered with snow and ice showing of individuals either pay the terrible price for the circumstance or either get along with circumstances. Additionally, the new film direction is created within this movie through making impossibility into reality; human beings have been viewed to be making a living in a world that look to us as a barren wasteland. 

Critically, the film represents the force of Christianity within the community, showing fable myths, and docudrama all in one. Like all the mythical sagas experienced in our daily life, the force of Christianity is portrayed since the film is about evil and how its work its way out through a generation, from one generation to the other. Atanarjkuat is portrayal of a legend and therefore allows the viewers to see an active influence and interaction of Christian forces.

Christianity has a substantial impact on the relationship with the community, in Christian life; it is interesting that Christian before they get married, they are supposed to leave their father and mother after the transfer of blessings. It is right and for any Christian family to extend help and gifts to any of their children getting married. Comparatively, Eskimo had rules regarding marriage which is similar to the one in Christianity that fathers blessing is expected and in this case, it is required before the wedding. Atanarjuat initially was not able to marry Taut because her father and Sauri father had already made a decision about the marriage (Mains, Cupples, and Lukinbeal).

Colonialism and Christianity are portrayed through the community lifestyle and nature of life they were living. In Christianity, it is revealed that adultery is not recommended anywhere and there are consequences associated with it when one get involved in such an act. In the story family, power and hierarchy revealed that Puja got involved in sex with her husband brother and upon his return Puja had to beg Amaqjuags and another wife for forgiveness, for him to be forgiven and accepted back. 

Additionally, colonialism is portrayed in the film through facial and body markings which was only seen in women of the villages throughout the whole movie; it described the females to be colonized by their culture since they were permanently painted in the body to a ward off evil spirit (Evans).Clearly, the film doesn’t resist and subvert the colonial gaze since the families could allow themselves to satisfy their spiritual entities that were able to control them even though it was against their happiness.

Work cited

Evans, Michael. Isuma: Inuit Video Art. McGill-Queen’s Press – MQUP, 2008. Print.

IsumaTV. “Atanarjuat The Fast Runner.” IsumaTV. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2017.

Mains, Susan P., Julie Cupples, and Chris Lukinbeal. Mediated Geographies and Geographies of Media. Springer, 2015. Print.