Cast: Barry Pepper, Annabella Piugattuk, Kiersten Warren, Robin Dunne, Jon Gries and James Cromwell
Director: Charles Martin Smith
Studio Synopsis: Charlie Halliday (Barry Pepper), a maverick bush pilot, is on a routine job in the Artic wilderness when he encounters a small band of Intuit fishermen. With them is a sick young woman, Kanaalaq (Annabella Piugattuk), whom they want Charlie to fly back to a hospital. After some hesitation, he agrees to the mission, however, when his plane crashes in a glacial lake in the vast outreaches of this desolate, yet beautiful land, Charlie realizes they are stranded hundreds of miles from civilization. These two strangers are pitted together against the brunt forces of nature in a story of suspense and resourcefulness.
DVD Rating: PG
DVD Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Extras: Making of feature and cast and crew interviews
Official Web site: http://www.snowwalkerthemovie.com/
Trailer: http://www.snowwalkerthemovie.com/

The Verdict: Think Lost, minus the polar bear. Pilot Barry Pepper quickly regrets his decision to deviate from his flight plan—within minutes, he's crash-landed deep in the heart of the barren Canadian Arctic. His radio’s busted, so he’s not expecting help to arrive for days or even weeks. Pepper’s not alone. His passenger's a sickly young Intuit woman (Annabella Piugattuk). She's not much of a talker, but she knows how to hunt, stitch together a beautiful coat made from the hide of her kill, and erect a makeshift camp from parts salvaged from the plane. So this is what it would be like if you were marooned with Martha Stewart. As the days past, and hopes of help fade, cocky fly boy Pepper's mood turns as ugly as his craggy beard and blistered feet. Still, he barely gets a word out of Piugattuk. And that’s where The Snow Walker—which screened during 2004's Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival—flounders. Cast Away's Wilson the Volleyball possessed more charm and emotion than the annoyingly passive Piugattuk. Sure, Piugattuk’s resourceful Kanaalaq knows to work the harsh land, but Piugattuk never displays a hint of concern about her predicament or eventual fate. And that makes it quite hard to care whether she survives. Actor-turned-director Charles Martin Smith clearly learned how to film under the Arctic's extreme conditions when he starred in Carrol Ballard's Never Cry Wolf, which was also based on a book by Farley Mowat. His elegant direction—coupled with the gorgeous cinematography that finds much beauty in the Arctic's bleak desolation—gives an otherwise intimate tale an epic touch. That almost compensates for the predictable twists and turns that this struggle between man and nature often takes.
—Robert Sims