Shooting an Inuit thriller in the frozen Canadian tundra has myriad challenges.
But that's where veteran director Zacharias Kunuk finds his inspiration and passion, and where he returned for his revenge tale "Maliglutit (Searchers)."
Kunuk rattles off the frigid hurdles he faced while filming in Igloolik, Nunavut in March 2015 — lots of sheepskin was on hand to wrap precious camera and audio equipment, he says.
"It was an extremely cold year. It was colder than other years," says Kunuk.
His actors braved 10-hour days in temperatures as low as -45 C, he adds, and the "indoor" shoots offered only modest relief; they took place in igloos where temperatures hovered around -20 C, says Kunuk.
All par for the course for the celebrated filmmaker, whose resume of dramas and documentaries largely take place in and around his Northern home and offer a rare glimpse into the history of this remote region.
His latest Inuktitut-language feature centres on the abduction of two women by a group of murderous outlaws. Seal hunter Kuanana discovers his parents beaten, his son killed and his wife and daughter gone. He sets out with his grandson Siku to rescue them.
Kunuk says he was partly inspired by the old Westerns he watched as a teen in Igloolik, including John Ford's classic "The Searchers."
But while that 1956 film centred on an overtly racist cowboy's quest for revenge when his niece is abducted by Comanche Indians, Kunuk casts Inuit characters as both the heroes and the villains.
"We used that model but we turned it into our own style," says Kunuk, best known for his 2001 drama "Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner," a mythological epic that won the Camera d'Or at Cannes.
"We must make this film our way."
That included every effort to make sure Inuit culture was represented accurately.
The broader crew included carvers, seamstresses, Ski-Doo mechanics and hunters, the last group tasked with building igloos just as they would have been constructed in Nunavut circa 1913.
"I've seen (another film) where they put our seal oil lamp in the middle of the igloo and people were sleeping around it like a campfire, that's not how you do it. So we try to do it our culture's way. We have an elder who is the designer so she knows exactly where to put things. So after our art designer goes through the set, we come in and place the camera and start acting."
It all lends to a gritty naturalness that extends to the performances, largely delivered by a cast of first-time actors. If there's a documentary feel to it that's not by accident, Kunuk acknowledges.
"Everything we do has a documentary feel to it," the 59-year-old chuckles.
"One-hundred years from now when we're gone, these films will be alive."
"Maliglutit" screens as part of the Toronto International Film Festival's Canada's Top Ten Film Festival touring the country. That includes Regina on Thursday, Edmonton on Saturday and Montreal on Jan. 26. It opens in Toronto on Friday.
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.