In The Heart of the South

In The Heart of the South

In the Heart of the South is what Single White Female would be if it were set in Toronto, with an Inuk protagonist and a dash of supernatural elements, starring North of North’s Anna Lambe.

A sharp critique of how the Canadian art world treats Indigenous artists, this psychological thriller reunites North of North actors Anna Lambe and Zorga Qaunaq.

In the Heart of the South is a surprising and exciting swerve away from director Nyla Innuksuk’s debut feature Slash/Back, which screened at the North Bay Film Festival in 2022. While that sci-fi film followed teen girls fighting off an alien invasion in Nunavut, here she reteams with 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 draws on a traumatic story from her youth involving 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 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 questions the reliability of human perception.