Night Raiders 2021

Directed by Danis Goulet

A nail-biting rescue thriller wrapped up in a chilling vision of near-dystopia, this Kiwi-Canadian co-production tackles Canada’s dark colonial roots through strong genre craft.

Canada / Aotearoa New Zealand In Cree and English with English subtitles
101 minutes DCP
M
Violence & offensive language

Director, Screenplay

Cast

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers
,
Brooklyn Letexier-Hart
,
Alex Tarrant
,
Amanda Plummer
,
Shaun Sipos
,
Violet Nelson
,
Gail Maurice
,
Suzanne Cyr
,
Pamela Matthews

Producers

Chelsea Winstanley
,
Tara Woodbury
,
Paul Barkin
,
Ainsley Gardiner
,
Georgina Allison Conder

Executive producers

Taika Waititi
,
Tim White
,
Noah Segal
,
Adrian Love
,
Kyle Irving
,
Lisa Meeches

Cinematography

Daniel Grant

Editor

Jorge Weisz

Music

Moniker

Festivals

Berlin, Toronto, Vancouver 2021

Elsewhere

Presented in association with

High Commission of Canada

A Canada-New Zealand co-production written and directed by Cree-Métis filmmaker Danis Goulet, Night Raiders explores the consequences of colonialism in a fleet, tense dash through a future world on the brink of collapse.

A disastrous war has left North America in the throes of military occupation; children are forcibly adopted by the state, brainwashed into becoming soldiers for the oppressing army. Cree woman Niska (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, in a star-making performance of quiet desperation) must team up with the Night Raiders, a group of indigenous radicals, after her daughter is taken by the occupation.

The film moves in the same sphere as Children of Men or Logan, its characters navigating despairing and dilapidated landscapes with an escalating sense of urgency. What gives Night Raiders its spark is its refreshing indigenous worldview, at once celebrating and making space for the continuance of a people decimated by colonial forces, incorporating pointed commentary about assimilation and the erasure of culture.

Sensitive, deeply-felt direction from debut filmmaker Goulet marks her as a real talent to watch in the burgeoning field of indigenous genre filmmakers.

“Goulet gives us a world of dilapidated high rises, grey clouds and war-torn despair as robot drones relentlessly patrol the skies looking for children … [The film] uses our awareness of its genre conventions to raise awareness of the oppression and destruction of indigenous people that has been orchestrated for centuries – long before dystopian fiction like Night Raiders became fashionable.” — Tim Grierson, ScreenDaily