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A strange thing happens yearly come Oscar time: Canada's entry for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film typically is a film the majority of English Canada hasn't even heard of, let alone seen.

This year is no different. The $4-million feature Ce qu'il faut pour vivre (The Necessities of Life) is on the short list of nine films up for best foreign-language picture. This list will be pared down to five official nominees in the category, to be announced on Jan. 22.

Ce qu'il faut pour vivre follows the heart-wrenching journey of an Inuit man removed from his life on Baffin Island and taken to Quebec City for treatment for tuberculosis. The story takes place in 1952 during the TB epidemic in the Far North.

At that time, notions of cultural relativism and the idea of caring for the cultural soul of native Canadians were far lower priorities than uprooting Inuit and sending them south for treatment.

When a supply ship in those days arrived at remote communities, Inuit families were brought on board for checkups. Those found to have TB would be swiftly removed from their families, often without the chance even to pack a bag. The journey to a sanitarium in the south could then take months as the ship continued to make stops at other communities.

But the aim of the film, written by filmmaker Bernard Émond and directed by Benoît Pilon, is not to dwell on injustices. “It's not a film about repairing what's been done in the past,” Pilon said.

Instead, the film focuses closely on the experience of the Inuit father who has been uprooted from the life in the northern wilderness he knows.

“It really works on this very personal level. We just follow this guy on a journey of despair and then come back to hope with a relationship with a little boy that a nurse had transferred from another sanitarium so that he can have someone to talk to. So it really becomes a really humanistic journey,” the director added.

With its otherworldly scenes of unspoiled Arctic life, matched with period costumes and scenes of mid-century Quebec, the film has performed well at Quebec box offices since its debut at the Montreal World Film Festival last fall. However, with the exception of those who have seen it on the festival circuit, such as at the Vancouver International Film Festival, it's relatively unknown in the rest of Canada.

Owned by Montreal's Seville Pictures, a subsidiary of Entertainment One, the film is scheduled for a limited English-Canadian release next month, possibly during the lead-up to the Oscars, although no dates have been confirmed.

Émond wrote the original screenplay in the early 1990s from the stories he heard during his time working as a video trainer in Inuit communities. But owing to the complexities faced by many co-productions, the script languished in development limbo. It eventually found its way to Pilon, known for his documentary work, but who also has a background in drama.