Canada/Aotearoa/New Zealand, 2021, 97 min. / Feature
Director/Screenwriter: Danis Goulet (Cree/Métis)
Producer: Paul Barkin, Tara Woodbury, Ainsley Gardiner (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui / Ngāti Pikiao / Ngāti Awa), Georgina Conder, Chelsea Winstanley (Ngāti Ranginui)
Language: English, Cree, subt. English
A dystopia set in the near future on Turtle Island (North America) which has been turned into a State controlled by military forces and drones. Children taken from their parents are schooled in State Academies to fight for the system. Cree mother Niska (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) decides to join an underground group to save her 11-year-old daughter Waseese. Danis Goulet’s powerful debut movie does not hide its allusions to Canada’s ugly system of residential schools. The story, produced with support from the Sundance Institute, is also the first cooperation film between the indigenous peoples of Canada and New Zealand.
