The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2006)

89% of critics liked it
(9 reviews)
71% of users liked it
(656 ratings)

Cultures collide and traditional beliefs are challenged when a group of Danish explorers arrive in the Arctic Circle and encounter an Inuit community determined to maintain their sense of culture in Atanarjuat director Zacharias Kunuk's cinematic meditation on this cultural and historical event. The… More Cultures collide and traditional beliefs are challenged when a group of Danish explorers arrive in the Arctic Circle and encounter an Inuit community determined to maintain their sense of culture in Atanarjuat director Zacharias Kunuk's cinematic meditation on this cultural and historical event. The year is 1922 and elderly shaman Awa (Pakak Innukshuk) is struggling to maintain his stormy relationship with rebellious daughter Apak (Leah Angutimarik). Her life marred by the same tragedy that befell her father, Apak is a shaman who is neglecting her current mate in favor of spending time with her deceased previous husband in the spirit realm. When a group of Danish explorers arrive and Awa is prompted to define his beliefs, his attempt to convey to his community the potentially damaging effects of Christian influence on Inuit culture offers a stirring look at the true meaning of tradition. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 52 min.
Directed By: Norman Cohn, Zacharias Kunuk
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Oct 8, 2006 Wide

Critic Reviews

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
While the Europeans are compelled to share some of their own songs, beliefs and personal history, it's the telling of the Inuit stories that compels much of the movie.
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
Watch as an entire social order collapses without a sound -- witness the seismic shift, hear the oblivious silence, and be moved.
John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter
Not every admirer of the first film will enjoy it, but it values its subjects too much to mold their rhythms to an outsider's attention span.
Leslie Felperin, Variety
Glacially paced and structurally lumpy.
Leo Goldsmith, Not Coming to a Theater Near You
A fascinating, multifaceted historiography and autoethnography, even if its story of cultural imperialism offers few new insights
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
The sad story of how shamanism and the ancient ways of the Inuit was replaced by Christianity and a hatred of the world in one community in 1922.
Aaron Hillis, Premiere Magazine
Wonderfully elegiac... the melody of language is essential to the film's beauty, in which disposable small talk sounds like Confucius proverbs of biblical longevity.
Keith Uhlich, Slant Magazine
Pushes forward, deeper and deeper among the ruins of a culture cast fatally adrift by modernization.
Bruce Kirkland, Jam! Movies
Despite its faults as a film, Journals stands alone. You simply cannot go elsewhere this year for self-expressed insights into the lives of people of Canada's north.

Read all 9 critic reviews

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