Sort of a cross between "Flight of the Phoenix" and "Nanook of the North," "The Snow Walker" tells the true story of Charles Martin Smith, a bush pilot in 1935 who crash landed his plane on the Canadian tundra with a seriously ill Inuit woman as his sole passenger (he reluctantly picked her up at a remote camp, agreeing to fly her to a hospital for treatment). Stranded in the middle of nowhere, miles away from the nearest town or human settlement and with little or no hope of ever being rescued, the two struggled for survival against both the elements and the disease that continually threatened to take the woman's life.
Smith is presented to us at the outset as a cocky, self-assured young man who feels, as a white man, innately superior to the natives who inhabit this far northern region of the globe. It isn't until he is forced to rely on the instinctive cunning and acquired wisdom of this young Eskimo woman that he comes to understand and appreciate the beauty and majesty of her people in their oneness with nature.
What starts off as a decent little tale of survival soon blossoms into a touching love story between two people from totally different worlds who connect at the very deepest levels of bonded commitment and mutual self-reliance. Despite the fact that Kaanalaq can barely speak a word of English and Smith not a word of Inuit, the two of them learn to communicate almost entirely through expression and gesture, coming to a shared understanding of the other's worth as a human being. Barry Pepper and newcomer Annabella Piugattuk achieve a real rapport as the unlikely lovers thrown together by a capricious, perhaps even cruel, but certainly life-altering trick of fate. There are also fine performances from Kiersten Warren, James Cromwell and Jon Gries as just some of the people back at the base fretting over Smith's unexplained disappearance.
"The Snow Walker" makes full use of its unusual setting, showing us how harsh and unforgiving nature can be to humans who happen to wander into the most remote regions of this immense planet. But it is as a love story, rather than an adventure tale, that "The Snow Walker" ultimately connects with its audience.
Smith is presented to us at the outset as a cocky, self-assured young man who feels, as a white man, innately superior to the natives who inhabit this far northern region of the globe. It isn't until he is forced to rely on the instinctive cunning and acquired wisdom of this young Eskimo woman that he comes to understand and appreciate the beauty and majesty of her people in their oneness with nature.
What starts off as a decent little tale of survival soon blossoms into a touching love story between two people from totally different worlds who connect at the very deepest levels of bonded commitment and mutual self-reliance. Despite the fact that Kaanalaq can barely speak a word of English and Smith not a word of Inuit, the two of them learn to communicate almost entirely through expression and gesture, coming to a shared understanding of the other's worth as a human being. Barry Pepper and newcomer Annabella Piugattuk achieve a real rapport as the unlikely lovers thrown together by a capricious, perhaps even cruel, but certainly life-altering trick of fate. There are also fine performances from Kiersten Warren, James Cromwell and Jon Gries as just some of the people back at the base fretting over Smith's unexplained disappearance.
"The Snow Walker" makes full use of its unusual setting, showing us how harsh and unforgiving nature can be to humans who happen to wander into the most remote regions of this immense planet. But it is as a love story, rather than an adventure tale, that "The Snow Walker" ultimately connects with its audience.