Aloft

Nana Kunning, a struggling mother of two, travels with her children to an isolated location to seek help from the Architect, a faith healer who builds small, delicate structures out of branches and invites patients inside them. The Architect operates by lottery, and Nana’s son Gully, who has an inoperable brain tumour, is not chosen to be saved. Before the Architect can touch the winning patient, the falcon of Ivan—Nana’s other son—swoops in and destroys one of the structures. The furious crowd will not give Nana and her sons a ride unless they abandon the bird, and when Ivan releases the falcon, a man shoots it dead.

The Architect eventually reaches Nana’s hog-farm workplace, informing her that she healed the blind boy she touched, insisting that he never touched the boy’s eyes while she did. Nana dismisses him, but the claim lingers, especially when the man who shot the falcon later begs Nana to save his child.

The Architect begins training Nana in crafting the structures needed to heal people. To fix the legs of a little girl, Nana constructs a swing. Her sons wait in the vehicle as she heals the child, but Ivan grows bored and slips into the woods, where he glimpses his mother on the swing with the girl. Misunderstanding what he witnessed, Ivan retrieves the vehicle and tries to take Gully home, only to crash it onto an ice-covered lake. Gully drowns beneath the ice while Ivan survives; Nana is crushed by Gully’s death and pivots away from her sons to devote herself fully to faith healing.

Years later, the story shifts to Ivan as an adult. Now 31, he is visited by journalist Jania Ressemore for an interview about the falcons he breeds. When Jania asks if he still remains in contact with his mother, Ivan ends the interview prematurely. Learning that Jania intends to interview Nana, he decides to join her, leaving behind his own wife and child, and bringing one of his falcons along.

Jania and Ivan press on toward Nunavut, where they discover the road blocked by a truck accident. They press on on foot across a vast frozen lake, and in the dark, Ivan begins to hear the ice crack. Jania taking his hand steadies him, guiding him step by step. A local man eventually finds them, taking them to his home and lending them his truck.

On the road, Ivan and Jania grow closer. Ivan realizes that Jania is ill and that she is making the trip in order for Nana to heal her. The two quarrel, but when Jania tries to leave to see Nana, Ivan sends his falcon out to her. She halts the vehicle and waits for him to join her.

When they reach Nana’s isolated retreat, Nana does not recognize Ivan and believes him to be another journalist until, during the interview, he asks how a mother can abandon her son. Nana consoles him, confessing that the burden had been overwhelming, and she places something in his hand, saying it is for Jania.

As hopeful patients unwrap the stones they have been given to reveal who has won the lottery to be healed, Nana tells a story of a man who fell under ice. While she speaks, Jania unwraps her lottery stone and finds it green, meaning she has not won. Yet Ivan slips a white stone into her hands — a stone Nana had given him — and Jania breaks into tears of relief.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 16:20