Justin E. H. Smith

Yakut people in the Sakha Republic also aren't Inuit, jesus! IDK if they're getting them confused with Yupik (an Eskimo-Aleut people) and then trying to be PC about saying "Eskimo" (Inuit still not the right term there though either). But if they can't even get ethnonyms right...

That the main character is named Nanook, so it sounds like it could be a reimagining of Nanook of the North. But I agree it is very confusing. I just can't tell if the confusion is from the reviewer or the filmmaker or both.

It seems wise to withhold judgment until we see the film; the story could involve some sort of ironic appropriation of 'Nanook'. I suspect however that the mischaracterisation of the Sakha as 'Inuit' is just a reflection of the Variety author's ignorance. Pretty shocking.

Ironic appropriation of indigenous culture to perpetuate tired 19th century tropes such as the "vanishing race" is also not OK at a time that indigenous people are at pains to point out that they and their cultures are still very much alive.

I think there are countless unpredictable ways in which a Sakha character in a fiction might come to identify w/ the name 'Nanook', some of which are conceivably OK. A lot depends on what the name means to the character.