A Native American movie about a grandmother who tries protect her grandson from the elements, Before Tomorrow makes its local premiere at 7 tonight at the Cleveland Museum of Art's Lecture Hall. It also shows at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, April 11. Here's our review of the film.
Before Tomorrow (Canada, 2008) The final chapter of a trilogy that includes The Fast Runner and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, co-directors Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu’s film takes place in a remote arctic village in 1840. Ninioq (Ivalu), an Inuit fisherwoman, and Maniq (Paul-Dylan Ivalu), her 10-year-old grandchild, are on an island drying fish. They’re waiting for members of their tribe to come and pick them up so they can return to the mainland. When tragedy strikes (as it often does when you’re trying to eke out a living in such primitive conditions), the two have to fight just to survive and must fend off wolves and other predators. Shot like a documentary, the film is a convincing period piece. It’s beautifully filmed too. But the slow-moving story takes too long to develop and unnecessarily long shots of the wind blowing across the arctic tundra don’t help the pacing either. ** 1/2
