Director: Benoît Pilon

Cast: Natar Ungalaaq, Paul-André

Brasseur, Éveline Gélinas

Run Time: 102 minutes

Country: Canada

Year: 2008

Language: English

The Necessities of Life, from prolific documentary filmmaker Benoît Pilon, is a gorgeous, elegiac story that examines Canada’s rich heritage of multiculturalism by seeking out a period when there was virtually no contact between the Inuit and the rest of Canada. Working from a sensitively crafted script by veteran filmmaker Bernard Émond (La Neuvaine, Contre toute esperance), Pilon has created a highly accessible film that was recently selected as Canada’s official entry into the Academy Award® competition for 2008. The film also won three awards, including the Special Grand Prize of the Jury at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival.

Set in the 1950s, The Necessities of Life recalls a time when tuberculosis was still an epidemic and a serious problem for many underserved communities. As the disease spread, many Inuit were forced to leave their homes in search of treatment elsewhere. As the film begins, Tivii (a mesmerizing performance by Atanarjuat’s Natar Ungalaaq) is brought to a sanatorium in Quebec City, where he is told he has to leave his family behind and face treatment alone. Suddenly he finds himself

removed from everything he knows, surrounded by a language he does not speak, and facing a future that is uncertain.

Luckily, he has a nurse, Carole (Éveline Gélinas) who is kind and nurturing, and who wants to see Tivii thrive. She cannot speak Tivii’s language, but she has an orphan, the Inuit and bilingual Kaki (Paul-André Brasseur), transferred to Tivii’s ward to translate. The two form a strong connection as

each, in his own way, struggles with his health and plans for productive years ahead – back home.

While The Necessities of Life covers vast terrain – the sociohistorical period in which it is set, the contrasting worlds of its characters, the universal language of compassion that can bind people together – it is Ungalaaq’s exquisite performance that elevates this film from what is already elegant, humanist and skillfully crafted into a truly poetic work of art.