In 1952, an Inuk man goes aboard a hospital ship for a routine chest x-ray; the next thing he knows, he is being sent to Quebec City, to a sanitarium, for treatment. On paper, this sounds disturbing, but, perhaps, necessary; he will die without treatment, won't he? This misses the greater pain of leaving behind his family, his land, and his culture.
The exceptional Natar Ungalaaq plays Tiivii, who finds himself in a Quebec hospital, surrounded by unilingual Quebecois, who greet him with attitudes ranging from compasion to contempt. Ungalaaq is not merely perfect for this part because he looks it, he is perfect because he is a tremendously gifted actor. When he asks, "I am the hunter; who will get meat for my family?" the viewer understands the complexity of his plight. This is compounded by his agony of the implied lack of dignity for everyone involved: "Now my wife will have to beg for food if she and the children are going to survive."
As well as delivering believably complex emotional resposes, Ungalaaq looks great on screen; the camera appears to love him. When we first see Tiivii, he is a vibrantly masculine presense; his long hair, parka, and kamiks combine to define him simply as Hunter. Later, at the sanitorium, stripped of his clothes, his hair, and his dignity, Tiivii appears to have aged 30 years. He is a shrunken, vulnerable shadow, his weakness compounded by an inability to communicate.
Lest you imagine this film to be an unrelenting sob-fest, let me assure you that there is light in this darkness. The audience at our screening laughed out loud in a number of places, and Tiivii has friends... particularly Nurse Carole, played with caring grace by Éveline Gélinas, and Kaki, an Inuk boy [who luckily has learned French!], played with quiet composure by Paul-André Brasseur. During Tiivii's extended stay in Quebec City, these are the people who allow him to live and express himself.
Director Benoît Pilon and cinematographer Michel La Veaux must be praised for the look of the film. In a reversal of one's usual prejudice, Tiivii's homeland in the North appears much warmer and more inviting than the sanitarium and Quebec City, so much further to the South. This subtle visual manipulation lends significant emotional weight, without the risk of maudlin explication.
Sometimes the description "Canadian film" involves a certain pejorative undertone, unfairly, but speaking of qualities of plot and production typical of this nation. In Necessities of Life [Inuujjutiksaq in Inuktitut, and Ce qu'il faut pour vivre in French] one does not find any negatives attached to this quintessentially Canadian production; it is a must-see film, both for the emotionally-charged and historically-revealing plot, as well as for its significantly beautiful presentation.
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