The Snow Walker - Race against Death
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Snow Walker - Race against Death |
| Original title | The Snow Walker |
| Country of production | Canada |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2003 |
| length | 103 (original) minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Charles Martin Smith |
| script | Charles Martin Smith |
| production |
William Vince Robert Merilees |
| music | Mychael Danna |
| camera | David Connell Paul Sarossy Jon Joffin |
| cut | Alison Grace |
| occupation | |
| |
The Snow Walker - Race with Death (originally: The Snow Walker ) is a survival drama filmed in 2003 by writer and director Charles Martin Smith . It is based on the short story Walk Well, My Brother from the collection of stories The Snow Walker by the Canadian writer Farley Mowat .
The film tells the story of the Canadian bush pilot Charlie Halliday ( Barry Pepper ) and the seriously ill Inuit woman Kanaalaq ( Annabella Piugattuk ) and describes their different perspectives on the hostile landscape and the other way of life.
action
Charlie Halliday worked as a pilot in the Northwest Territories of Canada in the 1950s . He is popular with his friends and apart from a few affairs he enjoys his freedom and does a few private side business in addition to his employer's jobs. His flight routes lead over the seemingly endless, hostile, but also impressively beautiful tundra of the Canadian Northern Territories, the sight of which is characterized by many pools of water in the warm season.
On one of his tours, he met a group of Inuit who asked him to take a sick woman to the hospital. Charlie realizes that she has the fatal lung disease tuberculosis , but refuses the request for help. Only after being given ivory as a reward is he ready to fly her to the hospital. On the onward flight, a storm approaches and Charlie has to leave his usual flight route. When the engine suddenly fails, they crash over the tundra, but survive unscathed. Since they weren't on the usual route and the nearest settlement is hundreds of miles away, Charlie has no hope that the search planes will find them. He ventures his anger in choleric outbursts of anger, which is why his companion stays at a distance.
Since he only sees the woman as a nuisance, he sets off alone in the direction of the base several hundred miles away and leaves her behind. He runs for several days in the endless treeless expanse of the tundra, plagued by rain showers, swarms of mosquitoes and the rough terrain. Unable to replenish his food supplies in this harsh nature, he eventually collapses, exhausted and disoriented.
When he wakes up from unconsciousness, he realizes that the woman named Kanaalaq had followed him and cared for him. From now on, the question why she did it doesn’t leave him alone. A communication begins between the two in which mutual respect and mutual care grow. Charlie now watches with interest how his companion finds the resources she needs to survive in this barren landscape with the simplest means. After he thinks he can hear a search plane, they both start their way back to the crash site. On the way, Charlie begins to understand more and more of the Inuit culture and also learns a little bit of their language.
The approaching onset of winter tarnishes his hope again, but with Kanaalaq's experience they can hunt down some caribou and prepare a hike to the closer Inuit settlements. Kanaalaq sews him new clothes for this, which makes him look like an Inuk. Charlie tells her about his bad experiences as a bomber pilot in World War II, which still haunt him in his dreams. Kanaalaq tells him about a famine she experienced with her family, and Charlie is deeply impressed by the way the Inuit deal with it.
The arduous journey and the onset of winter overwhelm the woman, who is in poor health, and Charlie is now fighting doggedly for the life of his beloved companion, who had previously saved his life.
Parallel to the action on the tundra, Charlie's employer, Walter Shepherd, tries to find the missing person by ordering several search flights. But all attempts fail and he is finally pronounced dead.
background
The book The Snow Walker
The Inuit, the northernmost indigenous people of Canada, originally had no script themselves. The Canadian writer Farley Mowat has captured eleven Inuit stories in a collection entitled The Snow Walker . The stories describe the rough beauty of nature and the nomadic life of the Inuit. In describing the confrontation with whites and the effects of the clash of cultures, the work takes a clear stand for the Inuit.
The story with the eponymous title The Snow Walker describes the sacrifices the Inuit have to make in times of great famine and how naturally they are prepared to do so. However, this story also tells that even in the greatest need, the Inuit can only expect help from the whites for something in return (here e.g. fur and walrus ivory). This is how Charlie behaves when he is asked to take the seriously ill Kanaalaq to the hospital.
Elements from this story and the title The Blood in Her Veins can be found in the story that Kanaalaq tells about her family around the campfire. Other cultural elements from The White Canoe explain Kanaalaq's consistent stance against Charlie when he tries to take the possessions of a crashed dead pilot.
Not only in these stories, but also today (2013), the deadly tuberculosis is present among the indigenous people. When it was introduced via the white fur traders, it was still incurable and caused devastating epidemics among the indigenous people. At the time frame shown, Kanaalaq only has a chance of survival with antibiotics, i.e. in the hospital.
The basic story the film is based on is titled Walk Easy My Brother! (English Walk Well, My Brother ). This formulation by Kanaalaq also answers the core question Charlie is confronted with in the film: Why did she follow him and nurse him back to health? Seasonal differently located food sources determine the nomadic way of life of the Inuit. Changing individual fitness and uncertain hunting luck require cooperation and sharing across family boundaries. Selfishness is fatal in the long run in this landscape. Recognition is therefore achieved primarily through contributing to the group. Kanaalaq finally sums up this community model with one word: Brother.
Movie title
The Snow Walker is a ghost in Mowat's stories that the Inuit symbolically take as a term for death. If someone dies, the snow hiker fetches them. If someone of their own choice, e.g. B. leaves the community in a famine so that there is enough food for the rest, then he looks for the snow hiker. Kanaalaq names him in the film as "taqqiq" ( Inuktitut for "moon", pronounced "tak-ke").
In the film, the literal meaning of The Snow Walker also gets sense from the opening scene, when some Inuit watch a figure emerge from the snow storm. The German title Wettlauf mit Tod comes very close to both meanings. There is also the alternative French DVD title Inuit .
Modern version
In contrast to Mowat's style, the film writer and director Charles Martin Smith also gives the pilot Charlie a positive cultural background by additionally describing the desperate search for the crashed pilot.
synchronization
While the DVD is only available with the original English sound, the German dubbing (by Lunatic Synchron) has so far only been broadcast on television. This TV version has been cut by some rather bloody scenes. In places it still contains parts in English (e.g. "go away"). None of the versions contain subtitles that also include the words that were spoken in Inuktitut.
production
The director Smith, himself an accomplished character actor, starred in the film adaptation of the 1983 Mowat classic Never Cry Wolf . So he already knew the country and the author.
He particularly tries to achieve an authentic implementation in the film. Not only were all the recordings shot on locations on the Canadian tundra, the actors had to endure infernal swarms of mosquitoes in the summer months and what felt like -45 ° C in winter. With these ambitions, a young Inuk was selected from hundreds of applicants to play the Kanaalaq. The decision for the 20-year-old amateur actress Annabella Piugattuk brought a particularly natural contrast to the experienced actor of Charlie Barry Pepper.
Production took place in Merritt (British Columbia) ; Churchill, Manitoba and Rankin Inlet (Nunavut). The majority of the scenes were filmed on the tundra outside Churchill.
In the making of for the film Live the Movie (45 min) the polar bears also play their part.
Versions
The film has not yet been released in German cinemas and the DVD is only available as an import in the original English (languages English and Inuktitut) with French and Dutch subtitles, which means that no age rating is known. A shortened version dubbed in German was shown on German television.
Reviews
Since the film was neither shown in German cinemas nor available as a German dubbed DVD, only English reviews are known to date. Here is just one example of these mostly positive reviews:
In his review in Jam! Showbiz , Bruce Kirkland called the film under the title “Pure elegance” as a “powerful, poignant and transcendent film” (an intense, poignant and outstanding film), he continues to write “The Snow Walker is wonderfully acted, especially by Pepper - who is as technically proficient as any young actor in Canada - and by Piugattuk, who had never acted before, but displays a naturalism that allows her to display the emotional and spiritual nature of her people while still being an eccentric and intriguing individual. She is flesh-and-blood, not a type […] All the elements are subtly brought together under Smith's strong hand as director. “ (The Snow Walker is played wonderfully, especially by Pepper, who is professional like every young actor in Canada, and through Piugattuk, who had never played before but exudes a naturalness that allows her to show the emotional and spiritual nature of her people while still being special and fascinating. She is flesh and blood, no Stereotype [...] All elements come together in a subtle way, guided by Smith's strong hand as a director.)
Awards
Method Fest Audience Award
- 2004 Best Picture (Charles Martin Smith)
Leo Award , won in the category: Feature Length Drama
- 2004 Best Costume Design (Allisa Swanson)
- 2004 Best Male Lead (Barry Pepper)
- 2004 Best Music (Mychael Danna)
- 2004 Best Sound ( Chris Duesterdiek , Dean Giammarco , Bill Sheppard, Mark Berger )
- 2004 best sound editor (Bill Shepard, Dean Giammarco, Robert Hunter, Christine McLeod, Johnny Ludgate)
- 2004 Best Visual Effects (Mark Benard)
Leo Award, nominations in the category: Feature Length Drama
- 2004 Best Director (Charles Martin Smith)
- 2004 Best Full-Length Drama (Rob Merilees, William Vince)
- 2004 Best Editing (Alison Grace)
- 2004 Best Production Design (Doug Byggdin)
- 2004 Best Screenplay (Charles Martin Smith)
Genie Awards , nominations
- 2004 Best Director (Charles Martin Smith)
- 2004 Best Performance in Editing (Alison Grace)
- 2004 Best performance in originally written music (Mychael Danna)
- 2004 Best Performance in Sound (Chris Duesterdiek, Mark Berger, Dean Giammarco, Bill Sheppard)
- 2004 Best Sound Editing (Maureen Murphy, Dean Giammarco , Robert Hunter, Johnny Ludgate, Christine McLeod)
- 2004 Best Picture (Rob Merilees, William Vince)
- 2004 Best Actor in a Leading Role (Barry Pepper)
- 2004 Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Annabella Piugattuk)
- 2004 Best Adapted Screenplay (Charles Martin Smith)
CNOMA Award (Canadian Network of Makeup Artists)
- 2004 Best Hairstyling for a Feature Film (Jessica Rain)
DVD Exclusive Awards, nominations
- 2006 Best Actor (Barry Pepper)
- 2006 Best Actress (Annabella Piugattuk)
- 2006 Overall best live-action film
- 2006 Best Supporting Actor (James Cromwell)
- 2006 Best Supporting Actress (Kiersten Warren)
Award of Distinction (Australian Cinematographers Society)
- 2006 film (David Connell)
Web links
- The Snow Walker in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Snow Walker in the online movie database
- Annabella Piugattuk about the casting and their role (English)
- Barry Pepper in an interview about the film (video, English)
- The Snow Walker - Official Trailer
Individual evidence
- ^ The Snow Walker. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 25, 2013 .
- ^ The Snow Walker. Catalog of the German National Library, accessed on May 20, 2013 .
- ↑ For more information on Annabella Piugattuk see the article Annabella Piugattuk on Wikipedia.
- ↑ Fur traders brought tuberculosis. www.welt.de , accessed on May 25, 2013 .
- ↑ Inuktitut. tusaalanga, accessed May 20, 2013 .
- ↑ Gigantic horseflies, swarms of mosquitoes and frostbite. Retrieved May 21, 2013 .
- ^ The Snow Walker. SIXX, accessed on May 25, 2013 .
- ↑ Pure elegance. (No longer available online.) Jam! Showbiz, archived from the original on January 15, 2013 ; Retrieved May 20, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Awards. imdb, accessed May 25, 2013 .
- ^ Leo Awards. Retrieved May 25, 2013 .
- ↑ Genie Awards. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 7, 2012 ; Retrieved May 25, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
