The Hope College Knickerbocker Spring Film series continues with the film “Inuk” on Monday-Saturday, Feb. 3-8, at 7:30 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland.
“Inuk” follows 16-year-old Inuk, who lives a troubled life in Greenland’s capital with his alcoholic mother and violent step-father. One morning, after pulling the half-frozen boy out of an abandoned car, the social services decide to send Inuk north, to a children’s home on a tiny island in the middle of the arctic sea-ice. There, Inuk meets Ikuma, a local polar bear hunter, who has his own share of problems. Haunted by his troubled past, his extraordinary hunting skills are mysteriously disappearing.
The children’s home’s warm-hearted director, Aviaaja, asks Ikuma to take Inuk on his annual seal-hunting trip. She is certain that despite the risks of such a long and dangerous voyage, Inuk will learn that he has a valiant past and a hopeful future.
So, when Inuk, the city boy, joins Ikuma, the great hunter of the North, on the epic dogsled voyage, they face much more than the bitter cold and fragile sea-ice. The most difficult part of the journey is the one they must make within themselves.
Created as an original road-movie on the sea-ice, “Inuk” is both an authentic story of Greenland today, a country torn between tradition and modernity, and a universal story about the quest for identity, transmission and rebirth after the deepest wounds.
“Inuk” is in Greenlandic and Danish, with English subtitles, and is not rated.
Tickets for “Inuk” are $6 for regular admission and $5 for senior citizens, Hope College faculty and children. Tickets will be sold at the door but are also available in advance at the ticket offices in the main lobby of the DeVos Fieldhouse (222 Fairbanks Ave.) and the Events and Conferences Office located downtown in the Anderson-Werkman Financial Center (100 E. Eighth St.). Both offices are open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be called at (616) 395-7890.
The Knickerbocker Theatre is located at 86 E. Eighth St.