A National Film Board of Canada production

Born from a single feather, young Piluk walks on, just as her mother did before her. Throughout her journey, she offers feathers from her thinning wings to passersby and wounded animals. From the raw landscapes of the tundra to a city of concrete, will she still be able to hear the breath of the wind that witnessed her birth?

What is your film about?   

Elisapie: The film is about young Piluk’s rite of passage. It’s about a nomadic life, a quest, the unbreakable bond between humans and nature, and the relationship between past and present.

Marc: The film explores identity through a quest, a journey, a walk. Encounters, and the passage of time. The invisible bonds that connect us to our origins and to who and what we really are.

Why did you want to tell this story? What was its starting point, for you?   

Elisapie: I wanted to tell a fantasy story from the point of view of a young girl who carries an emotional burden while remaining open to the world, and who doesn’t fear adventure even though she’s alone.

Marc: For me, it was a desire to tell a story about universal human feelings through the evocative power of art. But the starting point was wanting to try my hand at a new artistic practice and to work with a friend.

Tell me about your inspirations for the film.

Elisapie: My youth, my feelings of solitude in the face of the power of nature. The story of a little girl who has always dreamed of the unknown, but whose roots will forever link her to her land, filling her with gentle and raw power at the same time. No matter where our journeys and discoveries take us, ultimately we all belong to nature.

Marc: The whole narrative thread is inspired by personal and impactful human experiences, explicitly highlighted or poetically hidden in the film.

Let’s talk about the creative process. How did you collaborate, as co-directors?

Marc: First, Eli and I went back and forth on drafts of the screenplay, and then after that the process was more organic and complementary.

Elisapie: I have a lot of admiration for Marc, who has become a friend. I felt that he had a natural sensitivity for the things that speak to me: nature and the North. He has a gentle but frank approach. Silence and things that are left unsaid are filled with meaning, as though we’re making art in the style of people from the North—direct and contemplative.

How did the art direction and the creation of the film’s visual world come together?

Marc: The character came before the script. This young woman, who is a child at first, was inspired by one of my daughters, who served as a model. Part of the idea is that when we’re young teenagers, nothing about us is fully defined, even if the outlines are there and sketched in. So that’s where the raw, penciled appearance of this identity comes from. This incomplete character lives, imperfections and all, and grows in a setting that is also sketched, or is at least minimalist, taking a “less is more” approach to evoke a form of humility. The treatment of the world in the film closely corresponds to my artistic practice, both in drawing and painting. I wanted to show that handmade aspect of craftsmanship—restraint without artifice—while evoking something raw and even naïve, to echo the doubts the character has about her identity over the course of her quest.

Why did you want to tell this story through animation?

Elisapie: For my people, telling a story is an act of transmission. This oral tradition, which blends myth with daily life, is the life-force of Inuit art. From Kiakshuk to Annie Pootoogook, our artists transform these stories into images, carrying our culture far beyond our borders.

I wanted to create a timeless legend, working with Marc, who is an exceptional artist with an instinct for storytelling. Thanks to the NFB, we were able to bring Piluk’s story to life, bringing together the power of oral tradition, image and movement.

Marc: I’m a visual artist. Drawing is part of my life. Animation offers endless imaginative possibilities and seemed to be the perfect art form through which to tell a story of personal sensibilities. I’ve been drawing since my childhood, and I also tell stories through books, films, songs, poems. Working in animation was a happy marriage.

What did you find the most satisfying throughout the process?   

Elisapie: I learned a lot about putting together a narrative through visual art and animation. I also loved being able to contribute my artistic vision as a singer-songwriter. Working on the sound and music for the original soundtrack was both a pleasure and a challenge. I had a strong desire to maintain an organic aesthetic that flows very naturally between image and sound.

Marc: The act of drawing (pencil, eraser, colours…) with precision and discipline.

What role do music and sound design play in the film?   

Elisapie: The music is more important than I had originally anticipated. The sound and music are both very much a part of the character: we get into Piluk’s head through the soundtrack. I found it very satisfying to create sounds that would evoke these vast spaces, through very free and organic forms. We needed to feel the spirits, the people that came before her. Those who give her strength, so that she never feels alone.

The film touches on many themes, but it does so poetically. What were the subjects you wanted to deal with?

Elisapie: I wanted to celebrate how sadness can be transformed into beauty and joy, and how separations or ruptures can make us stronger and more resilient. It’s a question of embracing the constant changes in life and accepting its impermanence and mystery.

Marc: The discovery of one’s self, as time passes and travels through us. We all change at every age, but at the same time we don’t fundamentally change. Maybe it’s about how we can become who we are, without sacrificing parts of yourself.

The film depicts the experience of several emotional states, from mental exhaustion to the magic of dreams, as well as enchantment, disillusionment with the world, and self-redemption. It’s about the future, sadness, art, the importance of finding one’s strength and understanding and accepting who we are. It’s about a forgotten nature and a certain aspect of human nature, which is, on the whole, universal: the need to understand who we are.

There’s a marked contrast in the film between the stripped-down visuals and the saturation of the rising, crescendoing sound. Tell me about how you made that choice.

Elisapie: The work finds its balance in that contrast, by giving viewers all the space they require to imagine and to feel.

Marc: It was an instinctual choice, a very intimate one, that evokes the intensity of Piluk’s internal world.

What do you want people to take away from the film?

Elisapie: I hope the film speaks to their inner child, encourages them to look for beauty and strengthens their feeling of belonging. I hope it reminds people that life is a gift and a miracle.

Marc: The idea of beauty found in the sometimes wonderful and sometimes cruel imperfections of our nature. And, ideally, an intimate silence beyond words. 

And what are you each working on now?   

Marc: I’m working on public art projects for two American cities, an exhibition that’s going to run in New York and another in Montreal, a documentary film, a reforestation project, a novel…

Elisapie: I’m working on several documentary projects, and I’m also writing songs for a new album.

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