''Night Raiders'' is a 2021 Canadian-New Zealand

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

dystopian film This is a list of dystopian films. Dystopian societies appear in many speculative fiction works and are often found within the science fiction and fantasy genres. ''Dystopias'' are often characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, ...

written and directed by

Danis Goulet Danis Goulet (born 1977) is a Cree-Métis film director and screenwriter from Canada,Chris Knight"Danis Goulet's film a first for New Zealand-Canada Indigenous co-operation" ''National Post'', June 26, 2020. whose debut feature film '' Night Raide ...

. The film stars

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers Elle-Máijá Apiniskim Tailfeathers (born in 1986) is a Blackfoot and Sámi filmmaker, actor, and producer from the Kainai First Nation in Canada. She has won several accolades for her film work, including multiple Canadian Screen Awards. Bor ...

, Brooklyn Letexier-Hart, Alex Tarrant,

Amanda Plummer Amanda Michael Plummer (born March 23, 1957) is an American actress. She is known for her work on stage and for her roles in such films as '' Joe Versus the Volcano'' (1990), ''The Fisher King'' (1991), ''Pulp Fiction'' (1994), and '' The Hunge ...

and Violet Nelson.

Taika Waititi Taika David Cohen (born 16 August 1975), known professionally as Taika Waititi ( ), is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian. He is a recipient of an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award, and has received two nominations at t ...

serves as an executive producer. The film had its worldwide premiere at the

71st Berlin International Film Festival The 71st annual Berlin International Film Festival took place from 1 to 5 March 2021 as a virtual festival due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An in-person event has also been tentatively scheduled for June, pending the resolution of the COVID-19 issu ...

in March 2021.

Synopsis

Set in a dystopian version of North America in the year 2044, the film centres on Niska (

), a

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

woman who joins a resistance movement to the military government in order to save her daughter.Kelly Townsend
"Goulet’s Night Raiders brings its dystopian world to Toronto"
'' Playback'', October 22, 2019.

Cast

as Niska * Brooklyn Letexier-Hart as Waseese * Alex Tarrant as Leo *

as Roberta * Violet Nelson as Somonis *

Gail Maurice Gail Maurice is a Canadian actress, writer, and producer."Canadian aboriginal filmmaker en route to Sundance with Smudge". ''Times & Transcript'', January 20, 2006. She is most noted for her performances as the title character in the film ''Johnny ...

as Ida

Production

The film, a coproduction of companies from Canada and New Zealand, is executive produced by

.Chris Knight
"Danis Goulet's film a first for New Zealand-Canada Indigenous co-operation"
''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', June 26, 2020. Goulet has described the film as inspired in part by

Alfonso Cuarón Alfonso Cuarón Orozco ( , ; born 28 November 1961) is a Mexican filmmaker. He is known for directing films in a variety of genres including the family drama ''A Little Princess (1995 film), A Little Princess'' (1995), the romantic drama ''Gre ...

's 2006 film ''

Children of Men ''Children of Men'' is a 2006 dystopian action thriller film co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. The screenplay, based on P. D. James' 1992 novel '' The Children of Men'', was credited to five writers, with Clive Owen making uncredi ...

'', as well as by the military response to the

Dakota Access Pipeline protests The Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, also called by the hashtag #NoDAPL, began in April 2016 as a grassroots opposition to the construction of Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access Pipeline in the northern United States and ended on Febru ...

on the

Standing Rock Indian Reservation The Standing Rock Reservation ( lkt, Íŋyaŋ Woslál Háŋ) lies across the border between North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakota Oyate and the Ihunktuwona and Pabaksa ...

in 2016; in addition, the film functions in part as an allegory for the

Indian residential school In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The school sys ...

system. The film was shot in the

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

area in 2019. It was originally slated for commercial release in 2020, but was postponed to 2021 following production delays caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Release

On February 10, 2021,

Berlinale The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

announced that the film would have its worldwide premiere at the

in the ''Panorama'' section, in March 2021. It had its Canadian premiere at the

2021 Toronto International Film Festival The 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, the 46th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held from September 9 to 18, 2021.Barry Hertz"TIFF planning ‘substantially bigger’ 2021 film festival compared to last year’ ...

, and is scheduled to screen as the opening film of the 2021

ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world's largest Indigenous film and media arts festival, held annually in Toronto in the month of October. The festival focuses on the film, video, radio, and new media work of Indigenous, Abori ...

. It premiered commercially in October 2021, with the widest opening of any film by an indigenous director in Canadian film history. It was later released on TVOD platform in 2022.

Reception

The film was mostly well-received by critics, who praised its cast and storytelling. However, the film was also criticized for its reliance on tropes of YA fiction. On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an 83% approval rating, based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's consensus reads, "''Night Raiders'' strikes grim parallels between its dystopian setting and the present, offering a disturbing reminder that the horrors of the past are often very much still with us." The film was named to TIFF's annual year-end

Canada's Top Ten Canada's Top Ten is an annual honour, compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival and announced in December each year to identify and promote the year's best Canadian films."Canada's Top Ten awards will honour excellence in Canadian cinema" ...

list for 2021.Norman Wilner
"TIFF announces Canada’s Top Ten films of 2021"
''

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Now ...

'', December 6, 2021.

Awards

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 9568230 Canadian post-apocalyptic films New Zealand post-apocalyptic films English-language Canadian films First Nations films 2021 science fiction films Samuel Goldwyn Films films 2020s English-language films 2020s Canadian films 2021 directorial debut films