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Synopsis:
The film gives an account of Nanook and his family, part of the Itimuvit Inuit community, and their struggle for survival in Northern Ungava, near the Belcher Islands in the Hudson Bay Territory of Canada. It shows Nanook and his wife Nyla as they prepare for a summer journey to the trading post and to the fishing grounds. At the post the Nanook trades pelts for food and dry goods, shows off his huskies' puppies and listens to a gramophone while his children eat biscuits and blubber. Allee, his son, eats to excess and is given castor oil. Nanook goes hunting for fish: amid the ice floes he spears the fish and returns in his kyak, giving another man a lift on the way. Nanook and others stalk and catch a walrus which is cut up and eaten on the spot. The winter snow storms commence and the family set out in
their sledge to seek food. Nanook stalks and captures a white fox and he and Nyla look for a suitable camping ground.
The children slide on the ice whilst their parents build an igloo. The igloo is completed by Nanook inserting a window of ice in the wall. Nanook teaches his son
how to use the bow and arrow. The following morning in the igloo Nyla chews Nanook's boots to
soften them, and after breakfast she cleans her youngest child.
They start for the seal grounds, the sledge being iced to make it run more smoothly. The
young puppies are removed from their igloo and the party move off after the dogs have been brought to order.
Nanook catches a seal with the aid of his family and the carcass is carved up and eaten.
The children have a tug-of-war with a seal flipper. The dogs are fed, and again fight amongst themselves,
tangling their reins and causing a delay in starting. A snow-storm breaks and the family take refuge in a
deserted igloo, the dogs remaining outside. The film closes with a close-up of the sleeping Nanook.
There are two approaches to understanding Nanook of the North, through the beliefs of the man who made it or through a close reading of aspects of the film itself.
