... and touched the face of God

Once in a while you see a film that has no fanfare, no hype, no celebrity stars and yet it really hits a nerve and you wonder why it hasn't had more exposure. I have just seen The Snow Walker for the second time and was equally moved and enthralled as when I saw it first

A tiny Inuit actress, Annabella Piugattuk, plays the part of a young girl who helps a white pilot survive the harsh climate and bleak terrain of the Canadian tundra. She is the perfect foil to Barry Pepper's character - a brash but troubled World War II veteran - and shows him an alternative way to be.

When the search team fails to find the pilot, a memorial service is held and a poem read as a tribute. Fittingly, it is a poem written by a WWII pilot during a test flight of the new Spitfire V. A few months after he'd written it, the war already over, 19 year old John Gillespie Magee collided with another plane during a training flight in the clouds over England. Neither pilot saw each other in the clouds. Magee tried to eject but he was too close to the ground for his chute to open. He died instantly. Magee's eloquent poem is often read and has even been quoted by Ronald Reagan(on the occasion of the tragic loss of the Challenger 7 crew).Magee's poem and background can be read here.