CULT HERO OF THE MONTH
HERE’S SOMETHING YOU don’t see every month: Slash/Back is a seriously accomplished first feature from Inuit director Nyla Innuksuk, which is at once the kind of slice-of-life indie that should attract awards attention and an uproariously entertaining alien-invasion movie. Set during a day of chilly but glorious 24-hour sunshine in the Canadian Far North, Innuksuk’s film deals with the cultural confusion, teenage bickering/ bonding and general larking about of a posse of indigenous girls. A bloodthirsty alien prompts the heroines — played by Tasiana Shirley, Nalajoss Ellsworth and Chelsea Prusky — to embrace their heritage as hunters and defend the Earth. It has a Tremors/Grabbers line in sly humour; unlike the Thing, this invader does a terrible job of impersonating Earth lifeforms, shambling around inside the too-loose carcasses of a polar bear and a couple of people.