THE SNOW WALKER

Distributor Estimates Availability as: April • Video: June Country: Canada/USA Distributor: Lions Gate • Director: Leads: Barry Pepper, Annabella Piugattuk, James Cromwell, Jon Cries, Robin Dunne, Kiersten Warren Running Time: 110 minutes • Ratings: ON - NR / BC - NR / AB - NR / MB - NR / SK - NR / Maritimes – NR

An official selection of the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival, based on Parley Mowat's short story "Walk Well Mv Brother", is a remarkable, heartfelt journey of discovery in the vast and dangerous beauty of the .

It is 1951. Charlie Halliday (Barry Pepper, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, WE ALL FALL DOWN) is a brash young pilot who, after surviving World War II as a bomber pilot, takes refuge from his demons in Yellowknife, working for the Golden North Aviation Company which is owned bv his former commanding officer. A reckless womanizer with a woman in every port, Charlie flies Golden North runs "with God as his copilot, "sneaking off regularly to engage in rogue sideline business ventures.

On one such covert excursion, while stashing barrels of soda syrup on a remote shoreline, Charlie encounters a small fishing party and a surprise that changes his life. Among the Inuit party is Kanaalaq (newcomer Annabella Piugattuk), an ailing young beauty who shows early signs of tuberculosis. Mercenary to the core, Charlie tries to shake off the Inuit leader's pleas that he take the young woman with him and admit her to the hospital in Yellowknife, but he is eventually persuaded by the gift of a valuable pair of walrus tusks. He reluctantly takes off for Yellowknife with twenty-year-old Kanaalaq in tow, bent on a forced mission of mercy.

They never make it. Sudden equipment failure forces a disastrous crash landing in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from the nearest settlement and far astray from Charlie's flight plan. Lucky to be alive, Charlie and Kanaalaq begin an odyssey of transformation and survival across the autumnal tundra of daunting territories "so big you could fit Europe in it three times and still have room for Greenland." In the vein of NEVER CRY WOLF, THE SNOW WALKER, directed by Charles Martin Smith (director of Golden Reel winner and a wonderful character actor in his own right in movies like and THE UNTOUCHABLES), mesmerizes with its breathtaking, sweeping vistas and gripping, emotional story.