The Journals of Knud Rasmussen

While Zacharias Kunuk's highly anticipated followup to the triumphant Atanarjuat isn't likely to have the same universal appeal — because it lacks that movie's propulsive, action-essential plot — it is if anything an even more challenging, beautiful and ultimately passionate work. Recounting the first contact between a shaman elder (Pakak Innukshuk) and a small group of Danish explorers in 1922, the film observes the drama of cultural collision from the Inuit perspective, and in so doing blends drama, mysticism and ethnographic history in a manner that most audiences are likely to find mesmerizing, puzzling,or as dull as the snow that stretches from here to the Arctic horizon. A bold opening-night choice for TIFF. Can't wait to see how it does down with the champagne.