Before Tomorrow - The Story

The Story


Two isolated families meet for a summertime celebration. Food is abundant and the future seems bright, but Ningiuq, a strong and wise old woman, sees her world as fragile and moves through it with a pervasive sense of dread. Ningiuq and her grandson Maniq are dropped off on a remote island, where every year, the family dries the catch and stores it for winter.

The task is soon finished. As summer turns to fall, they wait in vain for the others to pick them up.

The story is set circa 1840, when some Inuit tribes had yet to meet white people, although rumors were circulating about where they came from and
why they traveled. After many years of isolation, the summer celebration is a time when young people get married, plans are made for the future and food is abundant. In these joyful surroundings, strange artifacts from the outside world, a steel knife and wooden pulley, are examined. Kukik, an elder, describes the curious customs of white people he has met, who greet everyone with powerful handshakes and drink a burning liquid that makes them all fall down.

Ningiuq is worried about something she cannot quite put her finger on. Is it the illness of her lifelong friend, Kutuujuk? Her own impending mortality?
Or something about the new and curious objects arriving in camp? The season’s catch is to be taken to a remote island, where Ningiuq will dry
and store it in a cave until winter. Her young grandson, Maniq, is eager to go along to help. Maniq’s father, Apak, takes them to the island together with Kutuujuk, who soon after succumbs to her old age. Ningiuq and Maniq finish the task themselves. They wait some time for Apak to pick them up.
The season grows dark and grey. When the first snow falls, Ningiuq and Maniq make their way back to the main camp to discover all the others dead in their tents. Among their bodies are artifacts from white men who had visited and spread disease. Ningiuq and Maniq go back to the island, only to discover the weather has turned against them. They barely survive an attack of wild dogs. As harsh winter sets in, they take shelter in the cave, putting a set of oars at its entrance to signal their presence to anyone who might pass by. Drawing on her deep spirituality and mustering all her survival skills, Ningiuq does her best to protect Maniq from solitude – brightening their time together and making his short life an object of great pride. In the darkest winter, Ningiuq realizes the cave will be her final resting place.

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