Peter Lynch’ second feature is, as the film-maker himself says, ‘subjective, but deeply rooted in historic reality’. It is a fascinating footnote to Canadian history and also a multifaceted analysis of the myth of the North and of the strange relationship between technology and nature. In 1929 the Canadian government bought three thousand reindeer with the intention of giving the Inuït (Eskimos) from around the Mackenzie Delta a source of income, because the destructive effect of the fur trade threatened to wipe out the native population. The greatest reindeer trek ever was meant to take eighteen months, but ended up lasting six years. The leader of the herd was Andy Bahr, a Moses of the North, who himself was to state that the herd led him. This Norwegian immigrant decided at the age of 62 to abandon his wife for an exhausting adventure that became even more claustrophobic because of the bureaucratic fuss in Ottawa.The Herd is a joy to see. It was shot on location in the Bering Straits in Alaska as far as the Beaufort Sea, 2800 kilometres from the ‘edge’ of the world, where the herd moved on through unknown and hostile territory. The best of Canadian actors perform in this Zen-like conflict between man and nature. Alongside the impressive figure of Doug Lennox as Andy Bahr (the voice is by Graham Greene, the actor) we see e.g. Colm Feore, David Hemblen and Don McKellar.
