The tundra above the arctic circle is a tufted, rocky landscape of efflorescent hues. But to Inuit videomaker Zachariah Kunuk, the tundra is also a place of ancestral passages, of nature's useful bounty. Into this landscape comes a group of fellow Inuits, circa 1930 as the setting would have us believe, preparing for their seasonal walk inland in search of summer-fat caribou. Using "actors" from his hometown of Igloolik, Kunuk has again resurrected the sly artifice of his earlier work, Qaggiq (1989), a snowbound drama centered around the building of a communal igloo. Nunaqpa appears to be an airy, beautifully shot documentary and the seal-skin tents, yelping huskies, caribou parkas, and rusty Winchesters add to the impeccable authenticity. Yet this engrossing period-piece is a reconstruction of Inuit life that exists more in ancestral memory than in daily practice. Nunaqpa sparkles with details-advice on preparing delectable walrus fat, the embarrassment of soaking one's parka fringes: bristling realism from an artist who looks at Inuit culture with eyes that know the long winter and the thaw that follows. -Steve Seid