News

The Necessities of Life (Ce qu'il faut pour vivre)

• Directed by Benoît Pilon
• Written by Bernard Émond and Benoît Pilon
• Starring Natar Ungalaaq, Vincent-Guillaume Otis and Éveline Gélinas
• Classification: PG
• 

With eight Genie nominations, three prizes at last fall's Montreal World Film Festival and a place on the Oscar short list for foreign-language film nominees, The Necessities of Life is a more modest achievement than its reputation suggests. A drama about an Inuit man incarcerated in a Quebec City sanatorium in the fifties, the film has a heart-tugging central premise and a gentle, reactive performance from Inuit actor Natar Ungalaaq ( Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner) as the man torn out of his familiar environment.

On Baffin Island in the summer of 1955, a medical ship is administering tuberculosis tests to Inuit villagers after an outbreak of the disease. Tivli (Ungalaaq), a hunter, tests positive and is immediately separated from his wife and children. Three months later, he arrives in Quebec City for an indefinite stay. Unable to speak French, he is completely isolated, as his clothes are taken from him, his hair is cut and he is left in a ward filled with a group of Quebec men, most of whom treat him as a figure of fun. Paradoxically, Quebec, shot in brisk blue tones, seems far colder than the North, demonstrated by sunshine, the flames of an oil lamp and the bushy sealskin coats.

The only patient who treats Tivli with respect is Joseph (Vincent-Guillaume Otis), who admires Tivli's art work. Even the sanatorium's Dr. Monpetit (Guy Thauvette), despite his education, seems to believe that the best way to communicate with a non-French speaker is by speaking French really loudly. For the first half of the film, only the audience, through the benefit of subtitles, knows what the characters are saying to each other.

The institutional drama follows certain predictable patterns: Tivli refuses to eat so the staff attempts to force-feed him. He attempts to run away in his hospital clothes and is brought back. Eventually, his main nurse, Carole (Éveline Gélinas) recognizes that he is suffering from culture shock and loneliness. She manages to find another Inuit tuberculosis patient, an orphan named Kaki (Paul-André Brasseur), who shares his language and can serve as Tivli's translator. The boy explains how sewage systems work and how to talk to the medical staff. Having found his voice by proxy, Tivli amiably propositions Carole, leaving the religious nurse in shock. Tivli also carves animals for the boy and tells him eerie supernatural stories about life in the North. As Tivli's health improves, he develops a plan to adopt the child, to bring him back to the world from where he came.

The melodramatic aspects of Necessities of Life, which was co-written by Benoît Pilon and Bernard Émond, aren't too broadly drawn, but neither are they subtle. The warm glowing gaze that Nurse Carole directs toward the man and boy feel a little too prolonged. The characters tend to be either one-dimensionally sympathetic or the opposite.

The unequivocal strength of the film is in the presence of Inuit sculptor and actor Natar Ungalaaq, whose face transmits the character's conflicted emotions so directly that the subtitles are almost redundant. His acting is so free of apparent effort or false notes, it makes you rethink what the best film acting is about, which is less about constructing a performance than finding the right person for the role and the camera, and letting him shine.