The Necessitites of Life

Running time: 102 mins

What?s most important in your life?

Recipient of the Audience Award, Special Grand Prize of the Jury and Public Prize for the Best Canadian Film at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival, The Necessities of Life tells the moving story of Tivii, an Inuit hunter diagnosed with a lung condition, uprooted from the warmth and familiarity of his family and confined to a sanitarium in a strange, foreign civilization. Stripped of his ability to communicate and disoriented by isolation, his will to live is slowly weakened.

However, the kindness of a single nurse ushers in the companionship of Kaki, a young Inuit orphan boy and translator, with whom Tivii shares his life stories, expels wisdom passed down his own family for generations and discloses his most honest wishes. This poignant, touching film celebrates the importance of friendship, hope and identity as one man seeks reunion with his family.


This film is sponsored by Marin French Cheese.