Canscene) — The following release from TIFF is good news for all who greeted Atanarjuat — The Fast Runner with such delighted surprise:

The 31st Toronto International Film Festival® opens September 7 with the highly anticipated world premiere Gala Presentation of The Journals of Knud Rassmussen. Directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn, the film follows Kunuk’s critically acclaimed success of Atanarjuat and explores the history of the Inuit people through the eyes of a father and daughter.

The Journals highlights TIFF’s commitment to showcasing Canada’s extraordinary and diverse filmmaking talent. The festival’s early announcement of this title immediately follows an unprecedented presence for the festival during the global Awards season.

The festival runs September 7-16, 2006. Set in and around Igloolik in 1922, the film is the story of the last great Inuit shaman, Avva, and his beautiful and headstrong daughter, Apak, who lives one foot in her father’s world and the other on the verge of the future. As Avva strives to keep his family together on their path into the twentieth century, where the rise of Christianity and commerce is putting a swift end to their culture, a team of Danish scientists arrives to make record of his way of life.

Expectancies will be high for this successor to what has been hailed as one of the most memorable Canadian films of all time.
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