Winner, Best international feature, Tribeca Festival
Though Labrador – Autopsy of Silence has a murder mystery as its hook—a ship’s cook is stabbed to death aboard a freighter in the North Atlantic—Rodrigue Jean’s beautifully constructed, deliberately paced film has more on its mind than “whodunnit.” Suspicion for the murder falls on the cook’s very close friend, the mechanic Alupa Tulugak (Christopher Angatookalook), and it’s Alupa’s world, filled with yearning and secrets and frayed relationships, that animates the film. Angatookalook, a circus performer making his acting debut, is a revelation, his placid surface suggesting the roiling depths of feeling beneath. Technically, the film is a marvel, boasting outstanding cinematography from Mathieu Lavardière and a fantastic sound design by Ilyaa Ghafouri, who creates a striking, immersive audio environment through ambient sounds. Jean manages to balance the murder mystery alongside his more potent observations on the imbalances of power, sexuality, class, and privilege. Also, if you’ve ever wanted to see an Inuk harpoon and dress a seal on the ice in real time, the opening scene of this movie is for you. ~SM