
Seemingly nestled safely away in the Earth’s northern reaches, the sleepy hamlet of Pangnirtung, Nunavut transforms into a chaotic battleground as Inuit teenagers go toe-to-bodysnatched-toe with alien invaders who’ve slithered into the skins of local policemen and wildlife. While the odds are stacked against Maika (Tasiana Shirley), Uki (Nalajoss Ellsworth), and Jesse (Alexis Vincent-Wolfe), they know their horror movie tropes, descend from a long line of hunters, and aren’t about to take any nonsense for extraterrestrial invaders. Drawing from both Hollywood classics like The Thing and traditional Inuit stories of the shapeshifting Ijiraq, Nyla Innuksuk’s exuberant debut harnesses genre cinema’s allegorical power to revisit colonial histories and explore contemporary Indigeneity, while also delivering enough suspense and spectacle to put many studio efforts to shame. Bolstered by its gregarious performances and suffused with a sense of community (it employed a largely local crew), Slash/Back possesses a warrior spirit that’s as endearing as it is indomitable.
The girls from Pang seriously kick ass, and I cant wait to see what Innuksuk does next.
Marya E. Gates, RogerEbert.com
Trying to review Slash/Back is like trying to critique fireworks… It looks like the next Spielberg is coming out of the North Pole.
Michael Talbot-Haynes, Film Threat
Slash/Back is the kind of film that gets me excited about filmmaking.
Bears Rebecca Fonte, Hammer to Nail
Nyla Innuksuk
Tasiana Shirley, Alexis Vincent-Wolfe, Nalajoss Ellsworth, Chelsea Prusky, Frankie Vincent-Wolfe, Shaun Benson, Kristian Bruun
Canada
2022
In English and Inuktitut with English subtitles
14A
Book Tickets
Tuesday June 28
Wednesday June 29
Friday July 01
Saturday July 02
Sunday July 03
Credits
Executive Producer
Neil Mathieson, Hussain Amarshi
Producer
Daniel Bekerman, Chris Yurkovich, Alex Ordanis, Nyla Innuksuk, Stacey Aglok Macdonald, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, Ethan Lazar
Screenwriter
Nyla Innuksuk, Ryan Cavan
Cinematography
Guy Godfree
Editor
Simone Smith
Original Music
The Halluci Nation and Michael Brook