Based on two books on Eskimo culture by Danish journalist, writer, and explorer Peter Freuchen, W. S. Van Dyke’s astonishing film was most likely the first feature to employ an Eskimo cast and a soundtrack centered around Native Americans speaking their own language. Mala, an accomplished hunter and the hero of the film, has been betrayed by an evil white trader captain (Freuchen). He is arrested for the captain’s murder but manages to escape into the wilderness. For all the dramatic intrigue of the tale, it is the fascinating scenes of life among the Eskimo hunters—including caribou, walrus, and polar-bear hunts—and details of daily domestic activities such as igloo building that predominate in the film. It was all shot over an arduous, twenty-seven-month period during which the crew’s equipment-laden whaling schooner was frozen into the sea.