Searchers (2016)

Interesting facts

• Box office: CA$1.2M

Searchers is a 2016 Inuktitut-language Canadian drama film directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Natar Ungalaaq, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Based in part on the 1956 John Ford film The Searchers, the film is set in Northern Canada in 1913. It centres on Kuanana, a man who returns from hunting to discover that much of his family has been killed and his wife and daughter have been kidnapped.

Production

The story is inspired by the 1956 John Ford film The Searchers, although co-director Zacharias Kunuk discarded the original's plot about conflicts between white people and indigenous peoples, instead using only Inuit characters. Kunuk explained racism was not an intended theme of the film, though given the time setting, the Inuit would have some items received from white people, as there were trading posts then.

Actor Natar Ungalaaq made his directorial debut with this film, along with Kunuk, who directed him in the 2001 film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. Kunuk, Ungalaaq and past colleague Norman Cohn collaboratively developed the screenplay from 17 to 100 pages.

Produced by Kinguliit Productions on a budget of $1.2 million, the film was shot near Igloolik, with the crew travelling to a nearby sea in March 2015 to film. Kunuk claimed it was the coldest weather he had experienced making a film, and that the frostbite on the actors visible in the film is real. Kunuk also said the camera equipment had to be covered in sheepskin to remain operational.

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