After the long freezing winter, when the days become longer and the animals come out of hibernation comes the ‘breakup’, a period between the winter and the spring, unique to Alaska. Katya Shugak, A full-blooded Alaskan Aleut, or Kate as her friends call her, is spending some peaceful time at home, on the lands of her ancestors, with mutt, her half husky half wolf for company, after retiring as a top investigator for the Anchorage District Attorney’s Office. Early one morning, the sky falls on their heads, quite literally, in the form of a cargo jet dropping from the sky damaging her and property. And quite literally, it opens the floodgates for a slew of interesting characters, dangerous grizzlies, tourists, feuding neighbours, marital discords amounting to attempted manslaughter and a murder mystery to boot coming into her quiet life.
Breakup is an adaptation by Michael Williams, of a novel by the same name from the Kate Shugak series by Dana Stabenow. Williams, in this screenplay, brings to life the Alaskan outback in all its raw, wild and frozen splendour. The screenplay knits together the different incidents with the colourful characters who appear blazing out of the undergrowth on their ATVs at the most unexpected moments and also manages to weave in a murder mystery into the mix effortlessly.
While the whole of Kate’s tribe looks up to the illustrious granddaughter of their respected elder, to be a guiding light and help them with the problems of the community, Kate needs a jolt to awaken her true inner self. Will this breakup, be the catalyst that will hoist her to the expectations of her Emaa.
