The Snow Walker

In the 1970s, renowned Canadian author, Farley Mowat published a collection of short stories called The Snow Walker. This film is based on one of those stories, Walk Well My Brother. The film was written and directed by Charles Martin Smith, who starred in the classic film adaptation of another Mowat novel, Never Cry Wolf. The Snow Walker is a sweeping adventure set in the ruggedly magnificent Arctic. Barry Pepper plays bush pilot Charles Halliday, an arrogant war veteran turned bush pilot running jobs along the Arctic Ocean’s Queen Maud Gulf. Stopped on a routine mission by an Inuit family seeking medical care for their gravely ill daughter, Kanaalaq (Piugattuk), he agrees to fly her to Yellowknife in exchange for a valuable pair of walrus tusks. When the plane crashes, Charlie and Kannalaq, played by Annabella Piugattuk in her debut role, are left on their own, a thousand miles from civilization. Kanaalaq proves to be resilient, keeping the pair well fed and sheltered until Charlie sets out across the endless tundra for the nearest outpost, leaving the sick, and dying, young women behind.

Photo and poster courtesy of Lions Gate Films