I hesitate to mention where I saw this film as the audience gets more crowded each year. Not that there will be many reading this tiny blog who will run, don't walk, to Cinema Chicago's International Summer Screenings. But their film choices overall are pretty good, especially that from the Canadian Consulate, whom I think tries to find a good representative movie of not only their film culture, but the country as well.
The Necessities of Life takes place in 1950s Canada, where the well-meaning government were trying to take care of their native peoples, and separated those that had tuberculosis and brought them to city hospitals (this was something that actually happened in Canadian history). One such Inuit man, due to cultural and language barriers, worries about his family and feels isolated during his treatment, which took several years. It won several Genies (Canadian Oscars) and showed a part of Canada and history I had never heard of before. The character Tiivii was shown marvelling at seeing a tree for the first time, since he comes from ice and snow, and I was thinking how we in more temperate climates just take that for granted, not taking the time to look at a tree or the sky. Especially in this day and age with internet and tv, very little knowledge is unavailable to us so there is little to amaze us anymore. Although the hospital staff is brusque, there is a sympathetic nurse who helps Tiivii, even bringing a sick native boy who can speak both languages to visit and help translate, and like I said, the government really are there to try to help the Inuits. His hospital mates at first make fun of him, but during their long stay together, some of them get to know him better and are more sympathetic. What Tiivii considers necessities to living and those of us in "civilized" societies are very different things.
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