Nanook of the North (1922), The Wedding of Palo (1934) and other Films of Arctic Life 2 x Blu-Ray Flicker Alley
on January 6th, 2021 at 18:06
Robert J. Flaherty's Nanook of the North is considered one of the greatest films of all time.
Nanook follows an Inuit (not named Nanook in real life) and his family as they live, hunt and trade in north Quebec the way their ancestors have for centuries. With no plant life, the Inuits rely entirely on hunting animals, a diet that produces stretches of hunger and hardship in the trying climate. To see Nanook in action is to enjoy a fascinating view of a lifestyle distant from ours.
Knud Rasmussen and Friedrich Dalsheim's The Wedding of Palo is the more intimate and clearly the more relaxed of the two films. In it life is still difficult for the Eskimos, but nature never looks as dangerous as it does in Nanook of the North. More often than not the focus of attention is also on the Eskimos' feelings and emotions rather than on their daily struggle for survival.
Flicker Alley's two-disc Blu-ray set collects numerous other anthropological and educational films about the time and region, as well as the indispensable "Nanook Revisited", a 1988 return to the community that reflects not only on how the people have changed but on Flaherty himself.
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