"The Fast Runner" is sometimes beautiful to look at, and in its immediacy it is at times able to transport the viewer to another time and place.But this is a bad film. In terms of storytelling, editing and narrative, it just doesn't make any sense. I found myself taken out of the film as much as I was immersed in it due to the poor film-making techniques.I'm sure that there are some people who were generally moved by this film, and it has a few very compelling moments. But as a film overall, I can't imagine how it gets such universal acclaim, especially considering its sub-AV Club technique. (I hate to call anyone's motives into question, but I tend to think that more than a few people who heap praise upon this film are doing so out of a need to praise this plucky group of Inuits for making a film at all. I think it's less condescending to evaluate it out of context.)

"Evil came to us like death and we just had to live with it," says the legend teller. The Fast Runner is a powerful, fascinating film about an Inuit community of less than two dozen people, living their lives above the Arctic Circle anywhere from a thousand to a couple hundred years ago. Their world is made up of vast frozen tundra and endless snow combined with the claustrophobia of living together in such close quarters that there are no secrets. Their survival and happiness depend on everyone living together in harmony. When the leadership of this group is assumed under questionable circumstances, when a rival is humiliated and when power is worked unfairly, evil descends on the group. The feelings of envy, ambition and lust which lead to murder may be familiar to anyone in any culture; how this plays out in such a small group of people and in such cold, severe conditions turns this movie into a unique and engrossing experience. Saari is the leader of the group. He has a son, Oki (Peter-Henry Amatsiaq), and a daughter, Puja (Lucy Tulugarjuk). Tulmaq, now dead, had been a rival for leadership long ago, but had been humiliated until his spirit was broken. He had two sons, Amaqjuaq, who was called the Strong One, and Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaaq), who was called the Fast Runner. Oki has grown to be a bully. As a child he and Ayuat (Sylvia Ivalu) were promised to each other, but now she and Atanarjuat have fallen in love. Oki and Atanarjuat settle the issue in a brutal fight. In front of the group, they stand facing each other. Then they take turns deliberately hitting each other on the side of the head as powerfully as they can. The one who fails to get up loses, and that is Oki. From then on we see how Oki's resentments and envy, and his sister's own trouble-making, lead to murder. By the time this small community casts out evil, Amaqjuaq is dead and Atanarjuat has barely escape with his life, running naked over ice fields and through pools of icy water, pursued by three killers, Oki in the lead. If nothing else does, this race against death will stay with you. Atanarjuat survives and finally returns to the group, where justice is meted out. This film puts us in the middle of this tiny community. We see how they live, how they hunt, how they survive, they way they build an igloo, what they butcher and how they eat, how they dress. More powerfully, we see how they must adjust and accommodate. This is a community so small that resentments must be settled early, where humor can be direct, where intimacy is a part of the life; and where jealousy, envy, trouble-making, love and passion are the same as everywhere else. "I can only sing this song to someone who understands it," the legend teller says at the beginning of the movie. The story is long (172 minutes), the language, Inukitut, is strange, the environment is frigid and unforgiving. But the people come from the same pool of humanity as we do. Give this film half a chance and you'll find you understand the song.

I have never seen a documentary about the Inuit which taught me as much about these people than Atanarjuat. The strength, skill, and endurance of the Inuit is astonishing. They survive in a vast, frigid, yet beautiful place on Earth. This film gives us a good look at that faraway place and those incredible people. I was fascinated from beginning to end.The story involves good and evil in men, greed, jealousy, betrayal, love. Two men in the Inuit community develop a feud over a beautiful girl and violence results. The Inuit actors give performances so flawless they cannot be critiqued. Very highly recommended for the well-done suspenseful story, incredible scenery and revelation of the Inuit lifestyle. For those who do not mind subtitles, it doesn't get much better.

There are lots of comments on this film already, and I read through some of them after having seen the film.I think the movie is fantastic, unbelievable, and a unique chance to learn about a culture that is different to ours, a life that is different, a way of thinking, and an attitude towards women, murder, spirits in a world where so much is concerned about surviving. I went out of the film and thought I still only got a glimpse of the Inuit's way of life. One of the most intriguing features is that the movie seems like a documentary, but the acting and the cuts. Very well done! The scenery is beautiful, and so are the people. The movie is long, 3hrs, but you don't feel it at all. I was absorbed by it from the first to the last minute.