The journey to Edge of the Knife | SG̲aawaay Ḵ'uuna starts with Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World, a documentary I saw in the 2015 Windsor International Film Festival.
"The scenery is amazing and well worth the price of watching, but you get a cool story about a place that is Canadian and aboriginal with majestic beauty."
I didn't even know about Haida Gwaii before the documentary. Haida Gwaii is an archipelago near Prince Rupert and Terrace in British Columbia. You might know Haida Gwaii by the settler name Queen Charlotte Islands.
The exciting part of Edge of the Knife | SG̲aawaay Ḵ'uuna was the idea of an entire film in the Haida language. Like a lot of Indigenous languages, the Haida language is in trouble of becoming irrelevant.
The film takes place in the 19th century. One family has traveled over to the island of Haida Gwaii for the summer. We meet Gaas, a young boy with the family on the island. Kwa, father of Gaas, and Adiitsʹii are best friends.
One morning, Kwa can't find Gaas. Kwa finds out Adiitsʹii went off with Gaas. Kwa looks for Gaas and discovers that the boy has died.
Adiitsʹii is missing. He turns into Gaagiixiid, a supernatural being who is ravenous. The villagers go and look for Gaagiixiid to turn the being back into Adiitsʹii. Kwa is also angry over Adiitsʹii, feeling that he is responsible for his son's death.
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The cast had to learn the Haida language. The words are spoken in a cadence that feels like they are almost speaking phonetically.
After the death of Gaas, there are a lot fewer words in the story. The transformation of Gaagiixiid is essentially noises and eating.
The film is more about the language and the scenery than the story but understanding the relevance of the story is important as well.
Edge of the Knife | SG̲aawaay Ḵ'uuna won Best Canadian Film and Most Popular Canadian Feature at the 2018 Vancouver International Film Festival. The film placed in the TIFF Top 10 Canadian films of 2018.
Edge of the Knife | SG̲aawaay Ḵ'uuna is available in Canada on Crave.
video credit: YouTube/TIFF Trailers
photo credit: Edge of the Knife | SG̲aawaay Ḵ'uuna film
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