imagineNATIVE '19 Film Review - Red Snow

Your Nation can be a very complicated phrase. Dylan (Asival Koostachin) is Gwich'in from the Canadian Arctic and a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan. Aman (Shafin Karim) is the patriarch of a Pashtun family a teacher turned translator caught in Taliban territory working for the Canadian Army while trying to protect what's left of his family. His educated daughter Khatira (Mozhdah Jamalzadah) clad in a full burka tries to study quietly knowing that teaching  females got her mother killed. They are wary of their cousin Ramiz  (Kane Mahon) who leads the local Taliban cell forcing Aman to participate in an ambush that results in Dylan's capture.

Once captured and thrown into a dimly lit concrete room Dylan moves inward for solace to his spiritual upbringing, memories of the forbidden love he shared with his cousin Asana as a teenager and his strong connection to his grandmother Ruth (the great Tantoo Cardinal) and past family matriarchs before her. Aman and his family are also in survival mode. They join forces with Dylan knowing each is the others only way out then begin the three day journey across the difficult desert landscape dotted with Taliban forces and rival tribes to Pakistan.

Writer/Director/Producer Marie Clements looked to showcase native peoples and their land with the film. Crane shots supply the visuals of the vast seemingly endless desert, snow covered arctic and green mountain on the journey to Pakistan. Cinematographer Robert Aschmann particularly shines capturing the shots where desert, meets mountain, meets snow at the Afghan-Pakistan border.  Taliban Cell leader Ramiz calls Dylan an unwanted invader on his land during the latter,s interrogation. Dylan remembers his Inuit village and his teenage love Asana wandering across the blinding beautiful Canadian arctic terrain changing it's colour a droplet of red at a time in the titular and emotionally centric sequence  of the film.

Survival is the theme of Marie Clements Red Snow. Survival of culture, survival of the family, survival of tradition, language, religion, traditional way of life and the individual. Asival Koostachin embodies many aspects of the theme as Dylan a captured, interrogated Gwich'in Canadian soldier. The narrative explores several layers of conflict and resolution in a tight 93 minute package that is well worth the watch.

*** 1/2  Out of 4.

Red Snow | Marie Clements | Canada | 100 Minutes | 2019.

Tags: Canadian Arctic, Inuit, Gwich'in, Afghanistan, Canadian Army, Panjwayi, Taliban, Prisoner, Interrogation, Kandahar, Pakistan, Motorcycles, Notebook