Riley Cue “War Pony”: Film Review | skin 2022

The Oglala Lakota version of the tribal story begins as a fairy tale of many origins, wrestling with the spirits and still under construction on earth. It is a fascinating story in which these spirits seduce people from underground dwellings to the surface of the earth until the Creator ends. It ends with humans being transformed into the first herd of bison, creatures created to guide people as they exorcise the Creator’s masterpiece.

A source of livelihood, survival and community in the Oglala Lakota tradition, bison are great war ponyIntimate Premiere Director Riley Kyo (Range) and her co-worker Gina Gamel. It’s a slow-moving movie that takes you to Billy (Jojo Baptize Whiting) with small triumphs and unmistakable observations of a big failure, a dim-witted 23-year-old Oglala Lakota trying to move on, and Mato (Ladainian Crazy Thunder). , a 12-year-old teenager who misses Saso. Fruit of a year of cooperation, war pony There is also a moving experience in collective narrative cinema: an example of how stories can be respected rather than exploited.

Gamel and Keog, with the help of Franklin Seaway Bob and Bill Redd, have written an old movie that glows with stories of communal worship. Like the Hulu TV series reserve dogs, war pony He uses interconnected lines as portals to the vast and moving account of the people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota.

The unreleased film begins with Bill thinking about how to make money. After learning the value of a returned abandoned poodle, Billy decides to become a breeder. He buys the owner’s dog for $900. Billy is excited. For him (and really only for him) the plan is promising. He is the father of two small children; The mother of his first child is in jail, while the mother of his second child is angry with him. Money won’t solve all of Bill’s problems, but it will make it easier for them to deal with the weather. When he dreams, Bison appears. Before Billy notices the ghost, the glorious creature leaves the screen.

They also need money, but for different reasons. The boy is obsessed with forming a hypermasculine identity, with a sort of uncomfortable cry. We know the one who travels with friends to the neighborhood, fights and commits theft. His plan to make money is to get rid of his father Matthew’s belongings and sell them to the drug addicts in the neighborhood.

war pony Self-assured arrows between Billy and Mato’s stories. The transitions are seamless: the camera follows Mato and his friends to the gas station convenience store only to leave the scene with Bill. This sequence, filmed by DP David Gallego and edited by Affonso Gonçalves and Eduardo Serrano, reveals Pine Ridge’s regulatory rules. What at first appears to be a noisy or noisy culture is mutual help. This is a society where everyone knows each other, although not everyone knows each other. know each other. When a community elder sees Mato and his friends stealing from the store, he pays them for the candy until the owner has time to get angry.

At the gas station, Billy Echo (Jesse Shmokel), his current girlfriend and mother of a second child. He flirts and tries to tell her about Poodle’s business. He rolls his eyes and wants to know why he’s not around. Whiting plays Bill with incredible courage. His eyes search Eko’s face as he whispers, “Are you mad at me?” And he follows her trembling thighs as she leaves the store. Bill’s humor has the quality of a puppy, indicating deep kindness and loyalty to his people.

war ponyThe story unfolds when she meets Billy Tim (Sprag Hollander), a wealthy turkey farm owner who lives beyond the reservation. This one has a flat tire and asks the first one to go to his house where he can help him. After realizing that Tim, a married man, was leaving a reservation with a minor, Billy uses this information to work. At his discretion, Tim gives Bill a job at home and at the factory.

Coming back to the reserve, they are in serious trouble. Her father (Franklin Sioux Bob) is aware of the drug theft, leading to a tense exchange. In a moment of unbridled rage, Mato’s father expels him. Now homeless, the young man has to take care of himself. He stays with friends until he arrives at a private house with other orphans.

Tensions increase as war pony Prepare the way for a non-flammable finish. Billy and Mato find themselves in increasingly difficult situations, from which they must find a smart way out. Thieves are robbed, people are beaten, things are set on fire. In between these dramatic scenes, Gamel and Keog will entertain viewers with vivid and captivating photos of the landscapes around Pine Ridge. The sighting of a bison by the two characters also becomes more frequent, as if the creatures were desperate to send a message.

War Pony It offers an incredible portrait of the life of a reservation avoiding excessive sentimentality. Native American history is a brutal history marked by violence, genocide and land theft. The Oglala Lakota Tribe, like other peoples affected by colonization, faces the challenge of recovering from damage while living in the systems that sustain them. war pony She turns that reality into her gripping story, tackling issues such as drug addiction, food apartheid, corporate greed, and the invisibility and exploitation that indigenous girls face.

There are times when war pony Loss: The result of many filler scenes and various sequences that reinforce simple observations of how whites treat their native culture. But these cases don’t drastically detract from the central story of Bill, Mato and their community. It’s small obstacles along the way that reflect true effort and collaboration.