In the Heart of the South

A crackling criticism of how the art world in Canada treats Indigenous artists, this psychological thriller stars Inuit actors from the series North of North.

In the Heart of the South is a surprising and exciting swerve away from director Nyla Innuksuk’s debut feature Slash/Back, the 2022 sci-fi film in which teen girls fight off an alien invasion in Nunavut. Here, she reteams with her co-writer Ryan Cavan to turn her focus on less obvious enemies, like a long-lost childhood friend who suddenly reappears on the doorstep.

Anna Lambe leads as Yura Ivalu, the latest darling of the Toronto art world, whose virtual reality piece promises to blow your mind. Presented with a new opportunity to develop a film, she offers to lean into a traumatic story from her youth, which involves a friend who believed she was a shaman. But when that friend, Sesi, re-enters her life, Yura’s sheen of perfection in this polite society begins to show cracks.

Played with a raw menace by actor Zorga Qaunaq, Sesi isn’t as willing to play the perfect Inuk as Yura is. Sesi infiltrates her home, her art show openings, and her social circle. As the tension builds between the two old friends, Yura’s psychological state begins to falter, as she senses that Sesi is there to replace her, expose her, or worse.

This second feature from an exciting directorial voice is thrilling, stylish, funny, and sharply critical of the fallibility of human perception.

KELLY BOUTSALIS

Content advisory: animal abuse, coarse language, mature themes, violence