''Rustic Oracle'' is a Canadian drama film, directed by Sonia Boileau and released in 2019. An exploration of the issue of

missing and murdered Indigenous women Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) is an epidemic of violence against Indigenous women in Canada, the United States, and Latin America; notably those in the FNIM (First Nations, Inuit, Métis) and Native American communities. Acros ...

, the film stars Lake Kahentawaks Delisle and

Carmen Moore Carmen Moore (born 24 December 1972) is a Canadian actress known for her work in television. She is known for her role as Loreen Cassway on ''Arctic Air'' (for which she was nominated for a Leo Award in 2012) and the lead role of Leona Stoney, o ...

as Ivy and Susan, the younger sister and mother of missing teenager Heather (Mckenzie Kahnekaroroks Deer), who embark on a trek to find Heather themselves due to a lack of action on her case by the police.Virginie Ann
"Rustic Oracle hits movie theatre"
''

The Eastern Door ''The Eastern Door'' is a community-based weekly newspaper established by Kenneth Deer (Mohawk) in 1992 to serve the community of Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. This First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke is located on the south shore ...

'', August 19, 2020. The film's cast also includes

Kevin Parent Kevin Parent (born 12 December 1972) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Quebec. He is fluent in both English and French. Early life Although his first language is English, he was born in Greenfield Park, Quebec (now a borough of the city o ...

Margo Kane Margo Gwendolyn Kane (born August 21, 1951) is a Cree-Saulteaux performing artist and writer known for her solo-voice or monodrama works '' Moonlodge'' and '' Confessions of an Indian Cowboy'', as well as her work with Full Circle First Nations P ...

Alex Rice Alexandrea Kawisenhawe Rice (born September 16, 1972) is an Aboriginal Canadian actress. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Early life Rice was born September 16, 1972, into a Kanien'kehaka ( Mohawk) family on the Kahnawake reserve in Quebec, ...

, Brittany LeBorgne and

Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (born August 8, 1993), known professionally as Devery Jacobs, is an Indigenous Canadian ( Kanien'keha:ka (Mohawk)) actress and writer. For her performance in ''Rhymes for Young Ghouls'' (2013), she garnered a Canadian Sc ...

. The film, Boileau's second feature film after '' Le Dep'' (2015) but her first English-language feature, was shot in 2018, primarily around

Oka Oka or OKA may refer to: Cars * Oka (automobile), a small car designed by AvtoVAZ and produced by ZMA and SeAZ * OKA 4wd, a large 4-wheel-drive vehicle made in Western Australia by OKA Military * 2B1 Oka, Soviet 420 mm self-propelled mor ...

and

Kanesatake Kanesatake (''Kanehsatà:ke'' in Mohawk) is a Mohawk (''Kanien'kéha:ka'' in Mohawk) settlement on the shore of the Lake of Two Mountains in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence rivers and about west of ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. The film's title derives from its use of the

dandelion ''Taraxacum'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus is native to Eurasia and Nor ...

as a recurring motif; according to Boileau, "The dandelion is perceived as a weed when actually it’s the strongest of all the flowers. It contains powerful medicine, and it’s viewed as a magical thing that will carry your wishes and memories into the wind when you blow on it. So it’s all about how we perceive someone versus how they actually are."Lynn Saxberg
"Gatineau filmmaker's first feature-length movie humanizes MMIW issue"
''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...

'', November 13, 2020.

Distribution

The film premiered at the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival.Daniel Taylor
"Film that explores themes of missing Indigenous women to screen in Kelowna"
''Kelowna Capital News'', September 21, 2020. It was originally slated for commercial release on March 27, 2020, but its release was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...

. It continued to screen on the online platforms of film festivals, and had several weeks of commercial screenings in Canadian cities after theatres were reopened in the summer. It has since been released to numerous

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

platforms, both in Canada and internationally.

Awards

Boileau received a nomination for the

Directors Guild of Canada The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) is a Canadian labour union representing more than 5,500 professionals from 48 different occupations in the Canadian film and television industry. Founded in 1962, the DGC represents directors, editors, assistant ...

DGC Award for Best Direction in a Feature Film The DGC Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film is an annual Canadian award, presented by the Directors Guild of Canada to honour the year's best direction in feature films in Canada. Winners and nominees 2000s 2010s 2020 ...

in 2020. Delisle and Moore both won acting awards at the 2019

American Indian Film Festival The American Indian Film Festival is an annual non-profit film festival in San Francisco, California, United States. It is the world's oldest venue dedicated solely to Native American/First Nations films and prepared the way for the 1979 formati ...

, and the film won the awards for Best Picture and Best Lead Performance by a Female (Moore) at the 2020

Leo Awards The Leo Awards are the awards program for the British Columbia film and television industry. Held each May or June in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the Leo Awards were founded by the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of British C ...

. Carmen Moore won the award for Best Actress from the

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

chapter of the

ACTRA Awards The ACTRA Awards were first presented in 1972 to celebrate excellence in Canada's television and radio industries.

. Moore received a

Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards (french: link=no, Les prix Écrans canadiens) are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media (web series) p ...

nomination for

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...

at the

9th Canadian Screen Awards The 9th annual Canadian Screen Awards were held in the week of May 17 to 20, 2021, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2020.Barry Hertz, "How one Canadian arts institution is rebuilding amid the p ...

in 2021."2021 Canadian Screen Awards nominations: List of major TV, movies nominees"

Global News Global News is the news and current affairs division of the Canadian Global Television Network. The network is owned by Corus Entertainment, which oversees all of the network's national news programming as well as local news on its 21 owned-and ...

, March 30, 2021.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 8390134 2019 films 2019 drama films Canadian drama films English-language Canadian films First Nations films Films shot in Quebec Films set in Quebec 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement