(Canada, 99 min.)
Dir. Peter Stebbins, Writ. Shannon Masters
Starring: Cara Gee, Jennifer Podemski, Shay
Eyre, Luke Kirby
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema (World Premiere)
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| Minnie (Jennifer Podemski) & Lena (Cara Gee) in Empire of Dirt. Photo by Jason Jenkins. Courtesy of Mongrel Media. |
As one watches Cara Gee’s sensational performance in Peter
Stebbins’s Empire of Dirt, it’s quite
easy to see how the actress landed a spot in this year’s TIFF Rising Stars
programme. Gee is a fiery revelation as Lena, a young Aboriginal mother
struggling to get her wayward young daughter, Peeka (newcomer Shay Eyre) back
on track. Gee is well matched by co-star Jennifer Podemski (Take This Waltz), who also produced the
film, in the role of Lena’s estranged mother. Empire of Dirt is worth seeing for the performances alone when Gee
and Podemski go head-to-head with the powerful words of Masters’ script.
Gee’s strongest moment, however, comes in a strangely
displaced moment at the end of Empire of
Dirt. Gee delivers a powerful monologue that illuminates the legacy of the
story that has just come to pass onscreen. It encapsulates the message of story
clearly, but its emotional weight is drastically undercut by its removal from
the core of the film and its placement as a post-script following some of the
credits. It’s hard to say where this essential monologue and awards-show ready
clip could fit, but one suspects that it might have more of an impact before
the film cuts to black. It’s inevitable that one feels a sense of removal from
the story as the credits role, so Empire
of Dirt might have been doubly effective if this emotional punch was
delivered in the main event.
Empire of Dirt
often meanders, though, in a wayward subplot about Peeka’s absent father (Luke
Kirby) and becomes doubly lost in search of a unique style to tell its
important tale. The film suffers from a frustrating aesthetic that provides a
distractingly artificial construction of reality, for many a frame of Empire of Dirt is obstructed by objects
in the foreground of the shot. Characters’ faces are framed and obscured in
annoying borders of set dressings and disruptions hanging from the ceiling. Add
the film’s occasional lapse into overly shaky handheld photography and one has
a style that detracts from the resonate history unfolding onscreen.
The performances by Gee and Podemski easily compensate,
though, as does Masters’ script, which avoids cliché and provides a realistic
and streetwise depiction of life for First Nations Canadians in the years
following the trauma of the Residential Schools. The film brings a notable
degree of representation for First Nations actors and stories alike to Canadian
screens. Empire of Dirt, through its
multigenerational story of forgiveness and reparation, is often a powerful tale
of collective healing. The three generations of women convey the importance of
looking to the past and moving forward, of acknowledgement and reconciliation,
but also of forging relationships anew and not letting the ghosts of the past
be a burden in the present.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Empire of Dirt
screens:
Sunday, Sept 8 at 9:15 am at Scotiabank 14
Update: Empire of Dirt opens in Ottawa at The ByTowne on December 6.
Update: Empire of Dirt opens in Ottawa at The ByTowne on December 6.
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| L-r: Shannon Mastes, Peter Stebbins, Jennifer Podemski |
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| Cast and crew of Empire of Dirt |
