Before adding your event, please check that it is not already there! Our team is actively working to maintain the accuracy of the Kootenay Calendar.
- This event has passed.
Soleils Atikamekw (Atikamekw Suns) – Cinema Québec
2023/ 103 minutes/ Canada
Director: Chloé Leriche
Writer: Chloé Leriche
Languages: French, Cree
Subtitles: English
Based on actual events, this tragic tale revolves around an incident involving five young people from the Atikamekw First Nation community of Matawan, Quebec who were found dead in a truck in a river in 1977. Faced with this terrible loss, the victims’ families and the entire community try to get the local police to investigate. They are met at best with half-hearted concern, at worst, with utter indifference. While the official (and unabashedly racist) police version is that the deaths were the result of a drunken accident, others wonder why and how two white men survived the incident unscathed. Suspicions abound. This powerful (and to this day still unsolved) story is given incendiary dramatic power by the extraordinary ensemble cast who enact a community at once seeking answers while dealing with unimaginable grief. Winner of the Borsos Award for Best Canadian Film at the 2023 Whistler Film Festival, where it also captured Best Director (Chloé Lerinthe) and Best Performer (given to its entire, remarkable ensemble cast) awards. Unforgettable.
Tom McSorley.
