They play the role of two sisters. In reality, they are cousins. One still lives in the small village of Igloolik, north of Baffin, Nunavut. The other now lives in Montreal. Together they made the film Tautuktavuk (Before Our Eyes)a rare foray into the intimacy of the Inuit world, which exposes its dramas as well as its beauties.
Lucy Tulugarjuk and Carol Kunnuk both have extensive experience in film, and went to the right school. The first played in the famous film Atanarjuat, by the great Inuit director Zacharias Kunuk, the first feature film to be shot entirely in Inuktitut. The second was from the movie The diary of Knud Rasmussenby the same director, which explored the deep fissure created in Inuit culture by colonization.
But Tautuktavuk (Before Our Eyes) is a film very much for today, where two sisters, in pandemic confinement, communicate with each other, in Inuktitut with French subtitles, by Zoom, between Montreal and Igloolik, 2,693 kilometers away.
Sensitive and taboo
But beyond these now familiar scenes, a taboo Inuit reality is revealed, the wounds left by sexual violence and domestic violence, and the damage caused by alcoholism.
“The film covers sensitive topics that no one really wanted to talk about,” Lucy Tulugarjuk said in an interview. But there is hope in the message, in my opinion. That was always the goal, in the end, to have hope and understanding. »
The co-directors will also present their film for the first time in Igloolik next week. “I’m excited to present it to my community, but at the same time, I’m a little nervous, because, like I told you, it addresses sensitive issues that no one is talking about. So I think I have a lot of courage. These are important topics and I hope they will accept it. »
It is through the nightmares of one of the sisters, played by Lucy Tulugarjuk, and the visible wounds of the other, played by Carol Kunnuk, that domestic violence is exposed here. The two sisters also refer to another violence, perpetrated on the two sisters in a small church in the community by a priest, a long time ago…
In an interview, Lucy Tulugarjuk refuses to say precisely whether the facts covered in the film really took place or not. “We promised to keep this confidential because we expected journalists to ask us the question. So we prepared to protect our privacy. People can try to imagine what is true or not in the film. It looks like a documentary, but it’s not. It’s a fiction film,” she says.
Lucy Tulugarjuk, however, says she was inspired by dialogues from her childhood to write the screenplay for the film.
The film also realistically addresses the painful transition between traditional Inuit culture and Western culture. A community elder, who organizes traditional rituals despite the ban on gatherings imposed by the pandemic, explains well this feeling of being torn between the Inuit past and the future.
In an interview, Lucy Tulugarjuk also addresses the social costs generated by this transition between traditional Inuit justice mechanisms and those of Western justice, particularly with regard to domestic violence.
Inuit justice
The co-director expresses her conviction that we must talk about problems to find solutions. However, she explains, traditional Inuit culture provided its own conflict resolution mechanisms, notably through the advice of elders.
“People were advised by elders on how to deal with family conflicts. There was a way to find solutions that suited both parties. Today, with colonial justice, it is no longer the same thing. You have to wait for the police and the court. And the court postpones the dates, etc. “, she says.
The film also exposes the glaring shortages of psychosocial support staff in the northern part of the North. While Inuit living in Montreal can benefit from therapy that allows them to overcome their old traumas, those living in Igloolik do not have access to the same approach.
“In Montreal, she has access to more resources and support. When you live in a small community, sometimes there’s no mental health worker in the community, maybe there are two or three nurses who are completely overworked, or the doctor is coming in six weeks . Or maybe people don’t trust the social service network or they don’t trust the police. »
The erosion of traditional practices is addressed in various ways in the film. For example, we see women getting tattoos to mark their years of sobriety. However, tattooing was a traditional Inuit practice. “In the past, each region, each community had its own tattoo designs. Now there are a lot of tattoos in the North, but they are modern designs. »