THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE (CE QU'IL FAUT POUR VIVRE)
(Canada, 2008, d. Benoit Pilon)
A serious, worthy and impressive film.
Set in the early 1950s, it takes us into Inuit territory on Baffin Island, the world of snow, ice and hunting. However, TB has become rampant and the warrior, Tivii (a moving and natural performance from actor/sculptor, Natar Ungulaaq, who played the hero of Atarnajuat: The Fast Runner, 2001) has to travel to hospital in Quebec, leaving wife and daughters. He is overwhelmed by the city, buildings, even so many trees that he is not used to on the vast ice plains. He does not speak French. He is not accustomed to the food, the manners, the attitudes of the whites. While he does settle after trying to run away, his healing takes a long time.
The hospital is a Catholic hospital managed by sisters who are both stern and kindly. The doctor is harrassed with so many patients. However, Carole, a sympathetic nurse befriends him and transfers a young Inuit boy to his ward. At last he can communicate with words.
The film has something of a serious, documentary tone, indicating the background of the director. We are immersed in the hospital along with Tivii and empathise with his experiences and the strangeness of what he finds – which raises all kinds of questions of inculturation and respect for different races and cultures.
Tivii wants to adopt the boy when he goes home and is helped by a sympathetic priest with questions from the rather formal bishop. This more even-handed presentation of the Church of the period is something of a relief after the (necessary) stories of abuse and mistreatment by church officials.
This theme is reminiscent of La Neuvaine (The Novena, 2005) where its agnostic director wanted to indicate that French Canada too quickly let go of its long French Catholic beliefs and traditions and is the poorer, culturally, for that. In fact, The Necessities of Life as written by Bernard Emond, the writer-director of La Neuvaine.
The Necessities of Life was Canada's official Oscar entry for 2008 and was listed amongst the final ten. SIGNIS Commendation, Washington DC, 2009.
