Actor Anna Lambe as Siaja is shown in an episode of the television show "North of North." THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-APTN-Jasper Savage
In developing “North of North,” a new Inuk comedy co-produced by APTN, CBC and Netflix, the creators made one thing clear: it had to be “a horny show.”
“So often Indigenous women don’t have any bodily autonomy in shows and aren’t allowed to enjoy sex. They’re often victims of it,” said Nunavut-born co-creator Stacey Aglok MacDonald during an interview last month in Toronto.
“We really wanted to show Inuit women and Indigenous women being in control of their bodies, having feelings and wanting romance and wanting sex and all of that stuff.”
Turning to star Anna Lambe and co-creator Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, who were sitting beside her, she added: “It also felt real to us, and we’re all about authenticity.”
The three burst into laughter, somewhat delirious from the long day of promoting the show. MacDonald quipped that the endless parade of journalists shuffling in and out of the junket room left them feeling “like we’re in a brothel,” drawing another round of chuckles.
“North of North” follows Lambe’s Siaja, a young Inuk mother who craves more than the predictable life she’s been living in Ice Cove, a tight-knit Arctic town. After a spectacularly public exit from her stagnant marriage to the self-absorbed Ting, played by Kelly William, she finds herself back at square one. Crashing with her mom Neevee, portrayed by Maika Harper, she navigates single motherhood, a new job and the dating world — all while trying to figure out what she really wants from life.
The half-hour series, which was shot in and around Iqaluit in the spring of 2024, premieres Tuesday on APTN and CBC.
Lambe, who is Inuk and was born in Nunavut, said she hopes Siaja breaks stereotypes of Indigenous women being “victims of our circumstances.”
“To have a character who is so actively determined to chase what she wants and to reach a new level in her life that she can look back on and be proud of, I hope is something that a lot of Indigenous women feel seen by and that, more importantly, non-Indigenous people can look at and be like, ‘Ah! It does exist,’” said the 24-year-old.
“I know so many women like that and that’s who I look up to. Like anybody else, we have dreams.”
MacDonald and Arnaquq-Baril previously collaborated on 2018 drama “The Grizzlies,” which also marked Lambe’s acting debut.
Working on that film
Arnaquq-Baril said working on that film, based on the true story of a youth lacrosse team created to address a wave of suicides in Kugluktuk, Nunavut, was powerful but “emotionally taxing,” and they were ready to do something more lighthearted.
“We just wanted to pivot a little bit and rest our hearts and do something that was full of joy and laughter,” she said.
CBC greenlit the series in 2021 but eventually sought production partners so the story could be told with the scope and scale it called for. On top of capturing Iqaluit’s sweeping vistas of frozen tundra, the show features many local community members as background actors, as well as artwork, garments and artifacts by local artisans and designers.
“To be authentic it had to be shot in Iqaluit, and we wanted it to be, but there’s many costs that come with that that make it more expensive,” said Sally Catto, CBC’s general manager of entertainment, factual and sports.
MacDonald described it as “serendipitous” that they were pitching the “North of North” pilot right as Netflix opened its Canadian production office in 2023.
“They just happened to be starting to look for their first Canadian projects and we were just like, “What better project than an Arctic comedy?”’
The streaming giant also ordered “Tall Pines,” a thriller series by Toronto comedian Mae Martin, around the same time.
“North of North” will premiere globally on Netflix this spring.
Arnaquq-Baril said she and MacDonald wanted an international audience for “North of North” from the very beginning.
“The way the world has seen us has been so far in history — like we don’t exist anymore,” she said.
“So we were ambitious for the story to be seen on the global stage so that we could shift the way the world sees us.”
She wants audiences to see that Indigenous women aren’t frozen in time, but are connected to the wider world, with their own hopes, dreams and yes, carnal desires.
MacDonald teased that the series will have some “twisted and sexy” moments.
“It looks cute, but it’s just a trick,” she laughed, referring to the show’s promotional photos featuring Lambe donning fur-lined parkas in front of snowy mountains.
Lambe joked that she will have to walk around Iqaluit with her hood up after the season airs, thanks to the show’s steamy scenes.
“People are going to be looking at us like, ‘You wrote this?’”
