Sikumi (2008) User Reviews

The drama which falls flat in spite of the prestigious awards...

[elsinefilo · 11 April 2010]

Sikumi,which is a part of a compilation DVD by Cinema16 , a British DVD company which releases "classic & award winning short films on DVD" seems to have been honored with many prestigious awards from the Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 to the Best Dramatic Short in 2008 Arizona International Film Festival. As a movie buff, knowing the fact that a short movie has received so many major awards exhilarates you but I can't really say that I am utterly thrilled at having watched this fifteen minute short to the end. As the name necessarily implies, On the Ice is set on the frozen Arctic Ocean. While an Inuit hunter,Apuna(Brad Weyiouanna)drives his dog sled in search of seals,two people far ahead catches his attention. When he raises his binoculars to the distant people, the hunter realizes they are fighting and they know both of them. He gets there as fast as he can but he finds Taqi's body (Olemaun Rexford)laying in a pool of blood. In his last breath Taqi says:"He stole it...Don't let him have it.My radio.He stole it, but...I took it back." Apula, who seems too calm for someone who has just witnessed a murder cries out: "Miqu! What did you do?" After a while Miqu (Tony Bryant) comes back and the first thing he says: "Did I kill him?". I don't know why the writer MacLean couldn't think of a better replique in such a situation. Someone who stabs his friend to death asks such a question in a way too placid to believe.Then the same guy claims self-defense in his overall phlegmatic attitude:"You saw it, right?He was trying to kill me!" Later on, he tries to reason with Apula and he says:"We can't bring him back.If we do, they're gonna take me.We can say he fell through the ice or a bear got him." At the end of the movie we see that the sled is vanishing into the horizon and we are led to think that Apula is torn between the tough decision of honoring the body of his murdered friend and destroying the life of the murderer. Filmed in Barrow, Alaska Sikumi offers a magnificent treat to your eyes. The whole frozen whiteness looks so beautiful but the acting is rather poor and the dialog sounds quite cheesy. As a result it is far from being a best,brilliant drama.