Labrador: Autopsy of Silence

Labrador: Autopsy of Silence
FrenchLabrador - Autopsie du silence
Directed byRodrigue Jean
Produced byRodrigue Jean
Patricia Bergeron
Cédric Bourdeau
StarringChristopher Angatookalook
Alexandre Landry
Gabrielle Poulin
CinematographyMathieu Laverdière
Edited byPaul Chotel
Omar Elhamy
Music byRadwan Moumneh
Production
company
Transmar Films
Distributed byH264 Distribution
Release dates
  • June 6, 2026 (2026-06-06) (Tribeca)
  • February 12, 2027 (2027-02-12) (Canada)
Running time
120 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguagesEnglish
French
Inuktitut

Labrador - Autopsy of Silence (French: Labrador - Autopsie du silence) is a Canadian crime thriller film, directed by Rodrigue Jean and released in 2026. The film stars Christopher Angatookalook as Alupa Tulugak, an Inuk mechanic working on a cargo ship supplying remote communities in Labrador, who becomes a murder suspect after his lover Alex (Alexandre Landry), the ship's cook, turns up dead.

The cast also includes Gabrielle Poulin as Michelle, the ship's captain who has also pressured Alex into a sexual relationship, as well as Arsaniq Deer and Jassinth Thiagarajah in supporting roles.

The film premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.

Labrador - Autopsy of Silence will come out in theatres in Quebec on February 12, 2027.

Casting

Critical response

Olga Artemyeva of Screen Anarchy compared the film to Anatomy of a Fall, writing that "Silence becomes one of the film’s most crucial aesthetic tools, as it isn’t merely something that is kept to possibly conceal the truth. It's a vault to hold together all of the things that simply cannot be put into words. Just like with the sea or the vast landscapes of ice and snow, captured in a mesmerizing way by Mathieu Laverdière’s camera, there is always a sense of something bigger and more complex behind Alupa’s reserved presence."

For Screen Daily, Nikki Baughan wrote that "In keeping with its central characters, this claustrophobic pressure-cooker tension never reaches fever-pitch but is kept simmering by Laverdiere’s evocative cinematography, which contrasts the desolate, industrial external landscape, wrought in cold blues and greys, with the warm intimacy between Alex and Alupa. Alex’s small cabin becomes a cosy enclave, a tiny space where they can truly be themselves; that it is also the scene of the murder is particularly distressing. While Radwan Ghazi Moumneh’s yearning, barely-there score adds a subtle layer of emotional texture, the soundscape largely relies on heightened ambient sounds – the creaking of the boat, the howling of a blizzard, the snap of the ice beneath the hull – to underscore the film’s haunting atmosphere."

Awards

Award Year Category Recipient Result Ref
Tribeca Film Festival 2026 Best International Narrative Feature Rodrigue Jean Won
Best Performance in an International Narrative Feature Christopher Angatookalook Won
Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature Mathieu Laverdière Won
Frameline Film Festival 2026 Official Selection N/A N/A
Vaschon Island Film Festival 2026 Official Selection N/A N/A
Iris Prize LGBTQ+Film Festival 2026 Best performance in a Female Role in a Feature Film Gabrielle Poulin B. Won
Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2026 Official Selection N/A N/A
Cinemania (Film Festival) 2026 Official Selection N/A N/A

References