Still: In Alaska - Jaap van Heusden & Vinnie Karetak

When Woody, a depressed teenage Inuk boy, fires a bullet into a major oil pipeline that serves much of Alaska, he doesn't do so deliberately. But the gesture has long-term consequences. Not only are hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil wasted, the FBI sees it as an act of terrorism, and so Woody becomes one of America’s most wanted fugitives.

What ensues is what co-director Vinnie Karetak calls a “slow-burning chase” across Alaska into Canada, as the feds chase Woody down. Also part of the hunt is Agent Susan Tarheel, played by acclaimed actor Noomi Rapace, who is more sympathetic than her colleagues, and who, as a woman of Finnish Arctic stock, understands better than most Woody’s psychological make-up, and that his intentions may not have been malign.

But can she get to him before desperation again takes hold, and as he contemplates again whether it’s really all worth it? Or has the strange adventure itself set him on a road towards redemption? Either way, Agent Taheel is determined to get her man before he is claimed by the treacherous and unforgiving Arctic wastelands.

In Alaska**, a Dutch/Canadian co-production directed by Dutch Jaap van Heusden and co-directed by Inuk Vinnie Karetak, was filmed entirely on location in North America. Just as authenticity was a key consideration when it came to the casting of Inuit actors, so was locating much of the film in some of Canada’s remote Indigenous heartlands.

“For Woody, we were always going to find an Inuk actor. And if we're going to portray the town of Nunavut, let's shoot in Nunavut, not go to Iceland just because the production facilities are easier to access and are cheaper,” says van Heusden. “These were big but essential directorial choices that Vinnie helped me take during writing, before the ‘real directing’ had begun.”

Another essential choice was to make it a co-directed work in which Karetak would add much nuance and depth, especially within the character of Woody’s single mother, and during the later scenes set among an Inuit community that harbours and protects the fugitive boy. “I fought hard for those points, and I was so happy that Jaap readily agreed,” says Karetak. 

“One of the biggest things I wanted to portray in the script is that we don't shy away from the history of what the Inuit went through,” Karetak further underlines in his film notes.

“It's embedded deep in us, this longing of wanting to be one group of people, but who are living in another world. We are trying to make connections as a people who are transplanted within our own land to a different world.”

Throughout the film, we are presented with an Arctic landscape that evolves in parallel with the greater sense of clarity that Woody begins to experience. While the earlier mise-en-scène is grim, inhabited by burned-out bulldozers and garbage strewn across roadways, the action slowly opens up onto vast woodlands and stunning vistas as the film reaches its dénouement.

“A lot of the things that are happening inside Woody are reflected in the external journey,” says van Heusden. “To me those landscapes that have been there for millions and millions of years felt indifferent to our suffering. And that was a little bit frightening, coming from Utrecht where I'm always surrounded by people and noises. But Vinnie taught me to see that there's consolation in that. The journey of wanting to die and then starting to survive without even thinking, and then to learn again how to live, is very much reflected by where Woody is.”

For the filmmakers the world premiere in Toronto will complete a process that was undertaken some four years ago. “TIFF is a big moment because I really need the audience to see the film,” van Heusen comments.

Yes, the film is done and dusted, and audience reaction won’t materially change what is now fixed on film. “But in my perception of what the film is, I really need them to see it and to tell me what they've seen, to be in the audience and hear when it goes really silent, or when there are little sighs, or when people are grinning or laughing. So in that sense, it’s really not over,” he underlines. Not, that is, until the key and final component - the viewer - is invited to engage in the cinematic process.

In Alaska is produced by IJswater Films & Experimental Forest Films, distributed by Gusto Ent (Benelux) and Elevation Pic (Canada). Sales are handled by WTfilms.

Find out more about TIFF here.

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*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund
**Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and Production Incentive