ÁHKUIN

With the singular Sámi oral storytelling tradition of joik at its center, ÁHKUIN is a visual and musical call-and-response between a grandmother and her descendants. Archival interviews and the joik of Maarit-áhkku unspool as a connective thread across time, inviting the viewer through a portal into this corner of Sápmi. Here, the rhythms of time are set by daily tasks that assure the survival of those who came before; seemingly mundane chores — carrying water from the river, setting up the sauna, boiling reindeer bone marrow — offer gifts of memory, music, and Indigenous knowledge. Drawing aesthetic inspiration from sources as diverse as duodji (Sámi handicrafts and land-based knowledge systems), the work of David Lynch, Pauliina Peodoroff’s Matriarkaatti (Matriarchy), and the environmentally focused, community-based art of Niillas Holmberg, Jenni Laiti and Outi Pieski, ÁHKUIN presents a melancholy yet playful Sámi story with lessons for a new era defined by giving and receiving.

Credits

Director(s):

Radio-JusSunná, Sunná Nousuniemi, Guhtur Niillas Rita Duomis, Tuomas Kumpulainen

Producer(s):

Kavita Pillay, Tracy Rector, Adam Mazo, Taylor Hensel 

Writer(s):

Radio-JusSunná, Sunná Nousuniemi, Guhtur Niillas Rita Duomis, Tuomas Kumpulainen

Cast:

Niillasaš-Jovnna Máret / Maarit NousuniemiJovnna Máreha Juhani / Juhani NousuniemiGáva-Áslaga Laura / Laura TapiolaRadio-JusSunná / Sunná Nousuniemi

Cinematographer(s):

Kevin Francett
https://vimeo.com/999263931

Presented as Part Of RECIPROCITY PROJECT SHORTS: ELEMENTAL WATER – GLOBAL INDIGENOUS STORIES OF RETURN

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