''Tia and Piujuq'' ( iu, ᑏᐊ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᐅᔪᖅ) is a Canadian family drama film, directed by Lucy Tulugarjuk and released in 2018. The film stars Tia Bshara as Tia, a young girl who has moved with her family to

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

as refugees from the Syrian civil war; struggling to adapt or fit in within her new environment, one day she discovers a magic portal which transports her to an

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

community in the

Canadian Arctic Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories and N ...

, where she meets and befriends Piujuq (Nuvvija Tulugarjuk), an Inuk girl her own age who is also lonely and unhappy as she is spending the summer at an isolated hunting camp with her grandmother (

Madeline Ivalu Madeline Piujuq Ivalu is a Canadian Inuk filmmaker and actor from Igloolik, Nunavut. One of the cofounders of Arnait Video Productions, a women's video and filmmaking collective in Nunavut, she co-directed, co-wrote and starred in Arnait's first f ...

), with their interactions proving healing and transformative for both girls.Priscilla Naungagiaq Hensley, "Review: Tia and Piujuq". ''Inuit Art Quarterly'', June 15, 2019. The cast also includes Eiman Aljaber, Ghaiss Gharibet, Khaldoun Abdoulmajeed, Nicolas Abrile, Anjo B. Arson, Jacky Qrunnut, Alexandre Apak Cousineau, Kayla Tulugarjuk, Damon Klengenberg, Cham Elhamoud, Jozafin Hazari, Charlotte Cortez-Robitaille, Laurence Guy, Elliott Jenny and Adam Elhamoud.

Production

The film was inspired in part by the art of

Germaine Arnaktauyok Germaine Arnaktauyok (born in Maniitsoq, Greenland in 1946) is an Inuk printmaker, painter, and drawer originating from the Igloolik area of Nunavut, then the Northwest Territories. Arnaktauyok drew at an early age with any source of paper she c ...

, both using a book of her art as Tia's key to opening the portal and directly featuring animated sequences created by Arnaktauyok. Nuvvija Tulugarjuk, who played Piujuq, is Lucy Tulugarjuk's real-life daughter. The film began production in 2017, with shooting in both Montreal and

Igloolik Igloolik ( Inuktitut syllabics: , ''Iglulik'', ) is an Inuit hamlet in Foxe Basin, Qikiqtaaluk Region in Nunavut, northern Canada. Because its location on Igloolik Island is close to Melville Peninsula, it is often mistakenly thought to be on th ...

.Sarah Rogers
"Nunavut’s Arnait Video explores Inuit-Syrian friendship in new film"
''

Nunatsiaq News ''Nunatsiaq News'' ( iu, ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊᕐᒥ ᐱᕙᓪᓕᐊᔪᑦ, italic=no) is a Canadian weekly newspaper in operation since 1973 based in Iqaluit, serving Nunavut and Nunavik, in Kativik, Quebec, Kativik, Nord-du-Québec. The paper is publ ...

'', August 3, 2017. Lucy Tulugarjuk noted that she saw commonalities between Inuit and Syrian cultures, including the importance of family and the fact that both groups have faced oppression and are commonly misunderstood in the media. The film features dialogue in English, French, Arabic and Inuktitut.

Distribution

The film premiered on September 30, 2018, at the

Carrousel international du film de Rimouski Carrousel international du film de Rimouski is a children's film festival taking place each year in Rimouski, Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian ...

, and was screened at the 2018

ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world's largest Indigenous film and media arts festival, held annually in Toronto in the month of October. The festival focuses on the film, video, radio, and new media work of Indigenous, Abori ...

, before going into limited commercial release in December. It was screened in 2019 at the Festival du film canadien in

Dieppe Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newha ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, where it won the award for Best Children's Film.

Critical response

Priscilla Naungagiaq Hensley of ''Inuit Art Quarterly'' praised the film's positioning of Inuit culture as a tool of healing and connection, instead of its more typical media depiction as a community marked by damage and pain. Louise-Maude Rioux Soucy of ''

Le Devoir ''Le Devoir'' (, "Duty") is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and throughout Canada. It was founded by journalist and politician Henri Bourassa in 1910. ''Le Devoir'' is one of few independent large-c ...

'' rated the film three stars, writing that it was uneven and awkward in places, but that it featured moments of poetic beauty in its portrayals of both the multicultural urban streetscape of Montreal and the natural environment of Nunavut.Louise-Maude Rioux Soucy
"«Tia et Piujuq»: les amitiés imaginaires"
''

'', December 22, 2018.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 8420530 2018 films 2018 drama films English-language Canadian films French-language Canadian films Arabic-language Canadian films Inuktitut-language films Canadian children's drama films 2010s Canadian films Inuit films Quebec films Films set in Nunavut Films set in Montreal Films about refugees