Mr. Speaker, congratulations again to Zacharias Kunuk, whom I congratulated two months ago for receiving the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation 2001 award.
Today I congratulate Zacharias Kunuk, director of Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner , for winning the prestigious Camera d'Or prize for the best first time feature film at this year's Cannes International Film Festival. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner has achieved groundbreaking firsts for Canada. It is Canada's first Inuktitut language feature film and the first Canadian feature film to win the Camera d'Or.
The film is an exciting action thriller set in ancient Igloolik and produced in Nunavut by an Inuit owner company using local cast and crew. The film's producers are Mr. Kunuk, Norman Cohn and the late Paul Apak Angilirq. The film is a co-production with the National Film Board of Canada.
We should be proud of this latest achievement which truly testifies to the vitality and diversity of Canada's feature film industry.