THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE
Canada, 2008, 102 minutes, Colour.
Directed by 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.
1.A Canadian film? French Canada? Eskimos? French- Canadian culture, traditional native cultures? The past? For the 21st century?
2.The period? Baffinland, Quebec, the hospitals, the TB ward? The more formal period? Costumes and décor, hospitals, the church? The solemn score?
3.The title, the necessities of life in general, for the Eskimo, material needs, seals, caribou? Or something deeper? Illness, life and death?
4.The introduction to Eskimo life: Tivili and the hunt, the flying geese, about to shoot, the sound of the boat? The Eskimos lining up for the x‑rays, the babies with the illness, Tivili and his having to leave his wife and children, the three months’ travel in the boat, arrival in Quebec?
5.Quebec, the car, Tivili looking at the buildings, the trees, getting out of the car? In the ward, the language difficulties, his bewilderment, his bed and pyjamas, the reaction of the others, not particularly friendly, laughing at his awkwardness, trying to eat the spaghetti, the cutlery?
6.The staff, the doctor and his hard work, sixty patients a day, saying he was not a missionary? The nuns, nice, stern? Carole and her friendliness? The cleaning of the beds when the patients died? The atmosphere of the ward? The audience being immersed in the life of the ward?
7.Tivili in himself, his age, family bonds, his illness? Having to stay a year or two, and the illustration from the calendar? The language and the impossibility of communicating? Having to cope, adapt? His illness and the treatment, the interviews with the doctor? The difficulties of eating, the food, so different from what he was used to? Difficulties in communication? Joseph appreciating his drawings? His ability with mending the watches? His leaving, three days in the snow, eating and collapsing? Carole and her bringing Kaki into the ward, talking with him, the language, the bond? Carole and her kindness? His asking her about sex and her angry reaction? Becoming more formal, for the injection? Her later getting over it, her kindness? Her smile? Kaki and his illness, the illustration of the string games and the mythology? The operation? Tivili wanting to adopt Kaki? The discussion with the priest, going to the bishop, the religious questions, the permit to adopt, his seeing through what the priest was doing in giving the bishop false information? His comment on Christianity – perhaps your tales are true? Kaki’s death and his grief? The funeral, feeling sad that Kaki was buried away from the open spaces of his own country? The farewell in the hospital, to the different people in the ward, the watchmaker giving him the present? His thanks to Carole? Back home, with his family, with his wife? A personalised story?
8.Kaki and his illness, in the ward, talking with Tivi? The white culture background, the meals, the radio? Yet his innate Eskimo nature? Sharing with Tivili, the string games, the operation, his growing ill, the issue of adoption, his wanting it, his sudden death?
9.The people in the ward, the fat man and his laughing, his escaping, his collapse? Joseph, his friendship, the drawings, his being able to leave? The old watchmaker?
10.Carol as a good woman, nurse, in the ward, skill at her work, language issues, her finding ways to explain things? Bringing Kaki, her reaction to the sex question, her later relenting? The operation? The funeral, her laying the wreath? The farewell?
11.The doctors, the nuns? The missionary priest, his background, the language, knowing Tivili’s relations, the cultural respect? The interview with the bishop, the shrewdness in giving the answers? The bishop and his formal Catholic questions? The funeral?
12.The background of the writer and of the director in documentary, fiction? The French- Canadian tradition, contemporaries losing that old Catholic tradition? Compassion, insight, for 21st century sensibilities?
