North of North (2025) appeared without warning on my Netflix list: a woman feels stifled in her tiny village in the Artic. I can relate to that, so let's go.
Scene 1: While showering (only shoulders visible), a young woman named Siaja explains that she's from as far north as you've ever been.
I think that's Calgary in the Western Hemisphere, and maybe Oslo in Europe. Then much farther north than that: Ice Cove, Nunavut.
A quirky Canadian small town and Inuit culture? I'm there.
Siaja has achieved the Canadian Dream, with a husband and child. Only now husband Ting (Kelly William, top photo) is the Golden Boy of the town, and she's only known as his wife.
First up: he gets to drive the car to the Spring Festival, while she has to haul the supplies on a lame Ski-Doo (snowmobile).
Scene 2: She drops in at Mom's very nice house -- lots of windows -- and announces that because it's a new year, she's going to apply for a job. Mom dispproves: you're a wife and mother.
Mom opens the store next door, which sells artisanal soap and miscellaneous stuff. Suddenly her hookup from last night walks in, shirtless. Siaja asks where he was in 1998 -- he could be her father! He scrams.
Mom criticizes her for scaring all of her hookups away. How many hookups could she get in a town of about 2,000 with no tourist trade and the nearest neighbor 300 miles away?
Left: I think the Handsome Man is played by Jeff Roup. who shows his d*ck or a prosthetic here.
Scene 3: Siaja leaves her child for Mom to babysit and heads for the town headquarters, which has a restaurant, some offices, and the radio station: DJ announces the seal hunt this afternoon and the naming of the festival king and queen this evening.
A blond woman named Helen, apparently the town mayor, comes in complaining about the 14-hour days that supervising the festival takes, while other town business just sits there. Siaja butters her up with coffee and suggests other cultural activities spread through the year. Didn't you just hear her? And she wants to be hired as a full-time cultural manager.
"Nope. You have zero work experience and no leadership skills."
"But I see life and beauty in everything!" At that moment, a guy walks in, wanting to know where to put the fish heads.
Scene 4: While Radio Announcer Colin (Bailey Poching) and a purple-haired woman are discussing how much partying to do tonight, Siaja comes into their office and screams. Helen didn't even look at her job proposal.
Left: Bailey Poching is gay in real life.
"Why do you want a job anyway?"
"To make our community a better place...ok, I want something of my own."
"But Inuit culture is all about community. Your own needs are irrelevant."
When Helen comes in to order the others to get back to work, Siaja asks for a chance. Couldn't you get a job, like, somewhere else? Ok, a petition to prove that the town wants a cultural director. 500 signatures -- but that's a quarter of the town! -- by tonight!
More after the break
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