Canadian director wins award at Cannes

An Inuit filmmaker who says he'd rather be hunting and fishing than dealing with instant celebrity in the south of France has won a prestigious award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Zacharias Kunuk picked up the Golden Camera award for a first-time director Sunday for Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner), set in ancent Igloolik in the eastern Arctic.

It's the first feature length movie to be shot entirely in Inuktitut, the Inuit language.

"We showed it to the people and they were very happy," Kunuk told a news conference. "So I knew that we had done our job. And here, the outside world has accepted it."

The stirring adventure, filmed on Baffin Island near the Arctic Circle, tells the legend of two brothers caught up in another man's jealous rage.

One of the brothers escapes an attempt on his life by running naked across an ice floe.

Many reviewers have likened it to a Shakespearean love story, set apart by spiritual beliefs unique to Inuit culture.

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Kunuk, 44, a sculptor-turned-moviemaker, was praised for his use of striking images and scenery.

Cinematographer and co-producer Norman Cohn, who's been working with Kunuk for 15 years, says the award means recognition of the Inuit people.

"It means we're not invisible anymore, that's what it means," he says. "But not just Zach and me Inuit stories. Inuit intelligence. Inuit humour. Inuit families."