On the Ice is a 2011 American drama film written and directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean. The film is set in Barrow, Alaska, MacLean's home town, and follows two Iñupiaq teenagers who, while on a seal hunt, accidentally kill one of their friends in a fight. Afraid of the consequences, they lie about his death and must grapple with their grief and guilt while attempting to keep their secret. The film is based upon an earlier work of MacLean's, Sikumi, which he released as a short film in 2008. On the Ice had its world premiere on January 21, 2011, at the Sundance Film Festival.
Synopsis
Three friends head out on the ice to hunt seal, but a fight breaks out, and one is killed. The two remaining friends, Qalli and Aivaaq, report the death as an accident out of fear and panic. As the Iñupiat community in isolated Barrow, Alaska is close knit, this loss hits the town hard. Qalli struggles to deal with his own guilt and loss while weaving a wider web of lies to handle his father's suspicion and investigation of the day's events. Aivaaq is unable to handle his guilt. He turns to drug and alcohol abuse and lashes out at his friends. The movie focuses on the impact of guilt, secrets, and lies on the teens and their community. Like other examples of Native American Cinema, MacLean's work combines Hollywood filmmaking and Independent filmmaking style to tell a distinctive tribal story.
Critical reception for On the Ice has been mixed. The film holds a rating of 59 on Metacritic and 64% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite this, the film has performed well at film festivals where it has received multiple awards. A reviewer for the New York Post called the film's polar setting "a perfect match for the noir tone" while also criticizing the movie's acting. A reviewer for The A.V. Club gave the movie a B+ rating, remarking "The performances, all from non-professional local actors, are noticeably uneven, but the film is as much a portrait of a place as it is a narrative, and cinematographer Lol Crawley shoots the white-on-white polar expanses like they’re vistas stretching to the ends of the earth—which in a way, they are." The late Roger Ebert praised the film for its suspense and finds the local actors convincing, noting that "guilt almost paralyzes Qalli".
