Takkuuk
Zak Norman & Charlie Miller / United Kingdom / 2025 / 67 min
A visually explosive, musical journey into the Arctic, where musicians and researchers share their personal stories about nature, culture, and rapidly changing identities to a dizzying score by BICEP.
Takkuuk is an Inuktitut word meaning to be attentive or to look closely. It is often used to describe the environmental and cultural changes in the Arctic. In the film of the same name, we meet musicians and researchers from the Arctic who explore life, communities, and the challenges they face.
The film is a collaboration between Belfast duo BICEP, visual artist Zak Norman, and filmmaker Charlie Miller. They weave documentary realism, music video aesthetics, and artistic abstraction together with the perspectives of indigenous peoples on the impact of colonialism and industrialization.
The narrative is punctuated by musical vignettes from Inuit and Sami artists (including Greenlandic rapper Tarrak and Sami singer Katarina Barruk), which together form the backbone of BICEP’s score. Meanwhile, specially built cameras capture the Arctic landscapes in surreal, alien colors that reflect a rapidly changing world.