North of North review: warm hearts in the icy Arctic

Express Tribune

6 days ago

A long, long time ago, when I was in grade three, we had a geography book called First Series Geography, by A.B. Archer & H.G.Thomas, that was published by Gin in 1936. Each chapter was about a child belonging to different areas of the world, which included Hirfa in the Arabian desert, Bombo in the Congo, and Pedro in the Andes Mountains. However, the second chapter was about a boy called Tooktoo who lived in Baffin Island, located in Canadian High Arctic territory of Nunavut. I remember there were some black and white pictures of igloos and seals.
That was my first impression of Eskimos and the cold, cold Arctic. From then up until now, apart from news or documentaries about the Arctic, I haven't had the opportunity to see or learn much about the northern-most part of the world, particularly in drama format. However, the title of a new Netflix series North of the North intrigued me. It might sound like a documentary, but it isn't. In fact, it is the perfect film series to watch in Pakistani summer.
With Netflix, I have travelled to India, Spain, China, Korea, Japan, Kuwait, US, Norway, Austria and Italy, and now reached the highest and the coolest place on earth, in North of the North. It is set in set in a remote village deep in the Arctic region of Canada, where snow blankets miles and miles of rolling hills and flat land, ice grey waters lap the icy shores, and even in spring and summer, the characters are bundled up in fur hats, puffy jackets, and sealskin boots.
Sitting snug in the Arctic Circle, is the fictional town of Ice Cove where lives the close-knit Inuit community. This is where the heart of the North beats. Give me as many series around small-town shenanigans as you like, with any number of episodes, as long as it is picturesque, there is great community spirit and everyone's nose is in everyone's business so that they love, eat, pray together in any beautiful part of the world, and I will lap it up.
Co-produced with CBC in partnership with APTN, North of North happens to be a significant milestone for Netflix, as well as the larger Canadian entertainment industry. As the first production of its scale filmed in the Arctic Canadian territory of Nunavut, it brings to us the fascinating cultural and geographic richness of Canada's northernmost territory.
Created by Stacey Aglok MacDonald, an Inuk film and television producer from Kugluktuk, Nunavut, Canada, and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, an Inuk filmmaker, known for her work on Inuit life and culture, the show follows a young Inuk woman Siaja (Anna Lambe), pronounced See-aa-ya, who is a 26-year-old homemaker married to highly admired Ting (Kelly William), and mother to a seven-year-old named Bun (Keira Belle Cooper). Longing for something more substantial in her life, she dumps husband Ting when she feels he doesn't see the person in her, other than her prescribed roles as a good Inuk woman. She moves in with her mother and brick by brick, she builds something for herself.
The upbeat soundtrack which is a mix of pop hits is notable. It includes Inuktitut-language covers of pop hits and original pop music by Inuit artists. Wait, but who are Inuks, you must be wondering. Inuks, or Inuit, are indigenous peoples who traditionally inhabit the Arctic regions of North America, Canada, Eastern Russia, Alaska and Greenland. The word "Inuit" means "the people" in their language, Inuktitut, and "Inuk" is the singular form. They have a strong connection to their land and increasingly prefer to be known by the names they use in their own languages, such as Inupiaq or Yupik. Historically, they used to have a nomadic lifestyle that centred around fishing and hunting seals, whales, caribou, and walruses, for food, clothing, and tools. But now they are mostly sedentary and live in heated homes and not igloos! While "Inuit" is the current term used in Alaska and across the Arctic, and the word Eskimo is fading from use. The Inuit Circumpolar Council prefers the term "Inuit" but some other organisations still use the word Eskimo.
Although the setting is unique and offers fascinating visuals, we have come across the storyline and plot of this light comedy series several times before — the young woman making up her mind about dumping a husband who doesn't see the person in her, an alcoholic mother and her backstory, and a father appearing in your life so that you and your kid both have to work on repective relationships with him — we have been there before. The community centre, Siaja's efforts to liven up the weekly 'elders' night,' by bringing young people in after tempting them with slushies, fundraising, town baseball match, and small-town camaraderie is shared by a number of serials. Ofcourse, all these activities and ideas make great content for fun episodes.
Lambe is thoroughly winning as Siaja. I can't imagine better casting as she is perfect for her character of an energetic young woman who is navigating through the messes in her life, and being determined to fight what she can't instantly beat. Her ethnic Innuit beauty, her traditional hair styles with braids and beads, her magnetism and her aptitude for getting into trouble and out of it, makes her a delightful and unforgettable character.
You might find it revolting or gross to see that raw meat is party food for them, and grown-ups and kids alike, nibble or munch on it like brownies, but the fact that their sealskin boots are not chemically treated and get destroyed by salt that is typically used on icy roads, comes as interesting nuggets of information about their lives, so the Inuits sand roads instead of salting them. The 'white-person' reference, casually used quite a few times in the series, mostly pertaining to the Helen (Mary Lyn Rajskub), non-Inuit/Canadian manager of the community centre in the fictional town of Ice Cove, is done in a light, non-abrasive and funny way. Since Helen is Canadian, she often doesn't know or understand the Inuit way of things, their traditions or customs.
Looking at the harsh terrain, the weather conditions and the freezing cold shown in the series, one wonders curiously, what kind of gargantuan effort, time and resources have been put in to produce a show like North of the North.
Since both Aglok MacDonald and Arnaquq-Baril are Inuit women who live in the Arctic, a lot of what you see in North of the North is life experienced firsthand. "It was crucial to film a show about Arctic in the Arctic and it's incredibly challenging doing something of this scale there," said Aglok MacDonald in an interview. "It cannot be replicated anywhere."
The series was shot in the spring of 2024, still a time when they wear furs and boots. Filming in the far North may sounds like quite an adventure, but apparently the creators, cast and crew not only battled the harsh weather and the monumental task of moving everything across vast distances, but even something as simple as fly-away hair became a major hurdle when hairspray froze solid!
During the filming in Iqaluit, Nunavut's real-life capital and most populous city, where the local curling rink was used as the production stage for the show's sets, hundreds of people from the town helped bring the show to life. Along with the 45 cast members, there were 500 locals serving as background actors — even the mayor!
Not just that, the work behind the scenes involved over 300 Canadian crew members, and over 225 Canadian vendors including more than 60 from Nunavut, who worked on the production that took 61 days and 20 shooting locations across Nunavut and Toronto.
"In the North, we have such a strong sense of community," Arnaquq-Baril said. "And we think that we have something to teach the big cities all around the world about what it means to live in community and be there for each other."
With community camaraderie, romance, and laughter, the show taps into universal themes of family dynamics and the search for identity.
Its powerful and successful portrayal of Indigenous communities, peoples, and their long-suppressed cultures, certainly qualifies a second season. The series shines a light on their strength and determination in protecting their heritage and societies, despite being colonised in the past.
The show also brings into spotlight indigenous voices that need to be recognised, respected, represented. More productions about native communities in the US, the Aboriginal Australians, and Māori communities in New Zealand would create a presence and awareness about them, instead of a complete absence from media and entertainment.
Once you start watching these heartwarming characters going about their intriguing lives in the icy Arctic, you won't remember the heatwave outside. By the way, I found out that Tuktu means caribou. In Inuit culture, names are often chosen to reflect a connection to the environment, and caribou are a significant part of Inuit life. While "tuktu" might be used as a name, it's more common to refer to the caribou themselves as "tuktu," reflecting the importance of this animal in Inuit culture and subsistence.END