Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun

Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun

Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun is a poetic and visually stunning coming-of-age story set against the vast, untamed landscape of the Canadian North. Directed by Yellowknife-based filmmaker Kristen Carthew, the film captures the tension between tradition and change through the eyes of two young Dene women navigating identity, inheritance, and belonging in a world that feels both ancient and on the edge of transformation.

The story follows 16-year-old Nihtâ (Tai Leclerc) as she prepares for her first caribou hunt—a sacred passage within her community that connects her to generations before her. Accompanied by her cousin Waseese (Shauna Baker) and their elders, Nihtâ must confront her fears, her doubts, and the growing pressures of a modern world encroaching upon ancestral land. What begins as a physical journey becomes a spiritual awakening, one that tests her courage and deepens her connection to the land and its stories.

Carthew’s direction is deeply immersive, pairing the grandeur of northern wilderness with moments of quiet intimacy. Her use of natural light, Indigenous languages, and nonprofessional actors lends the film an authenticity and lyrical power reminiscent of works by Zacharias Kunuk and Chloé Zhao.

Before the Sun is more than a coming-of-age film—it’s a reflection on stewardship, survival, and the interdependence between people and the land. Meditative, resonant, and beautifully photographed, it stands as a powerful testament to cultural continuity and the enduring light of Indigenous storytelling.

Screening With:

There….

Student Short Showcase

Definition of “There”: there adverb (PLACE)

“There…” refers to an unknown country which the protagonist calls home. A borderless land with no features and nothing but soil. There is no architecture in this home, neither physically nor spiritually.
The soil represents an entity that embodies the potential for growth. It refers to the country, Iran; a place of multi-faceted possibilities.

In Persian literature, Iran is a feminine name and still many people are named Iran; a motherland which gives birth, wherein growth takes place. On Wikipedia, the most basic search on the internet, it states “a country is a distinct territorial body or political entity (i.e. a nation). It is often referred to as the land of an individual’s birth, residence or citizenship.” The short film draws upon the question whether the protagonist truly considers herself as the resident or citizen of that unknown land?

In order to be physically in this country, the protagonist is forced by the interviewer to be dishonest and doubt her thoughts. At the end, it is she who has to leave that land and carries “THERE” with herself.

7 mins
Canada, Iran, 2022
Dir. Rojin Shafiei
Language: Persian

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