Dir. Lin Alluna
2023, Denmark, Canada, Greenland, 92 min
English, Danish, Kalaallisut, Inuktitut with English subtitles
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is the first museum in the world solely dedicated to celebrating and furthering human rights. The stories we tell put faces to human rights and highlight our shared humanity.
Aaju Peter is a force of nature. She is a renowned Greenlandic Inuit lawyer, an activist, who defends the human rights of indigenous peoples of the Arctic, and the fierce protector of her ancestral lands. She works to bring her colonizers in both Canada and Denmark to justice, and deploys her effusive spirit and illuminating wit to provoke self-examination and personal responsibility among Westerners for imposing their colonial ways. As Aaju launches an effort to establish an Indigenous forum at the European Union, she also embarks upon a complex and deeply personal journey to mend her own wounds, including the unexpected passing of her youngest son.
In this inspiring, emotionally powerful documentary, the beautiful lens of director Lin Alluna journeys alongside an extraordinary human being as she plumbs through the social and personal wreckage of sanctioned white dominance, to find the strength – within her abilities, her community, and her own vulnerabilities – to transform her hardships and painful experiences and into something amazing that can inspire others who also struggle with the poisonous effects of colonialism.
It’s a brave and generous undertaking from Peter, which is handled with respect and sensitivity by Alluna.
– Wendy Ide, Screen International
