The Fast Runner: Filming the Legend of Atanarjuat

Chapter Five: The Legend and Its Variants

chaPteR FIve The Legend and Its Variants In the late 1990s, Paul Apak Angilirq came up with the idea of turning the legend of Atanarjuat into a full-length feature film that would rely almost entirely on Inuit talent. He collected eight variants of the legend from Igloolik elders, wrote an overarching version of the story in English (which was required for the funding applications), then showed it to the other principals of Igloolik Isuma Productions, the video organization for which he worked. Later drafts of the screenplay were written in Inuktitut by Apak, Norman Cohn, Zacharias Kunuk, Hervé Paniaq, and Pauloosie Qulitalik, working as a team. The final screenplay, completed on March 29, 1998, was also translated into English. Legends, like any form of oral literature, grow and change over time to reflect the interests of the people telling them. This evolution results in the existence of numerous versions, or “variants,” of the story, all in circulation at the same time, with no one variant serving as the “official” or “real” version. Even when a variant is frozen in film or ink, it remains just one of numerous extant versions. Folklorists, anthropologists, and other scholars often collect and study the various versions of a story to discern differences that can shed light on the culture in question. Because The Fast Runner represents just one version of the many in existence telling the Atanarjuat story, exploring the ways in which it echoes or contradicts other versions can illuminate the goals of the producers and the texture of Inuit culture. The Film Version The version of the legend told in the film embraces many characters, but at its center is Atanarjuat. Atanarjuat’s family—including his father, Tulimaq; his mother, Pitaaluk; and his older brother, Aamar63 juaq—belongs to a small band of Inuit living in the Igloolik area. When Atanarjuat is just six months old, a pivotal battle between good and evil takes place in the camp. The camp’s leader, Kumaglak, has made the small band of families prosperous and healthy. His success, however, breeds envy; his son thirsts for power and plots to kill him and take over as leader of the camp. The son, Sauri, invites an evil shaman named Tuurngarjuaq to the camp for a duel to the death with his father. After a fierce battle bridging the physical and spiritual worlds, the evil shaman prevails, and Kumaglak dies. The evil Tuurngarjuaq anoints Sauri the new leader of the group, but this affront to the natural order brings chaos and despair to the band of families. Because of Atanarjuat’s popularity and his skill as a hunter, his family in particular suffers scorn and harassment from Sauri and his kin; their food is stolen, their efforts at hunting are disrupted, and their role in the group’s activities and decision making is increasingly marginalized. The film leaps ahead twenty years. Atanarjuat is now a young man whose skill as a hunter has improved his family’s situation somewhat. The rest of the camp still treats Atanarjuat and his family as outcasts, giving them only meager portions of the communal hunts and forcing them to pitch their tents some distance away from the others, but on the whole, the family is faring well. Sauri’s family, however, continues to act with arrogance and cruelty. Sauri’s son, Uqi, becomes Atanarjuat’s rival and wastes no opportunity to belittle and frustrate him. Traveling with a small gang of followers, Uqi steals the food that Atanarjuat hunts and commandeers his dogsleds whenever he can. Uqi’s jealousy has at least some rational basis. A beautiful young woman, Atuat, has been promised to Uqi, but she shows increasing fondness for the kinder and more skilled Atanarjuat. Whenever they get a chance, the two young lovers flirt and play games together, and Uqi grows increasingly furious. He challenges Atanarjuat to fights and often complains that Atanarjuat is thwarting his plans. After one hunt, during which Uqi struggles to keep up with Atanarjuat’s 64 | chApter five brother, Aamarjuaq, Uqi’s anger boils over. At first Uqi takes his fury out on one of his dogs, but when Aamarjuaq teases him in public, he responds with a threat: “Are you making fun of me? If you think . . . ! If you think you’re a better man than me, I . . . ! I could . . . kill you!”1 A short while later, Atanarjuat arrives with...