Wildhood review – open-hearted essay on indigenous identity and dawning sexuality
Set in Nova Scotia, Bretten Hannam’s tremendously shot film follows two boys as they flee their abusive dad and embark upon a quest
Bretten Hannam’s road-trip quest is an essay in indigenous and queer identities set among the Mi’kmaw people of Nova Scotia: it’s a sometimes pious movie with rather ostentatiously beautiful imagery whose violent plot transitions in the opening act are a little forced. Yet there is an open-heartedness and gentleness in it, and a sense of style and place that reaches back to Malick and arguably even Mark Twain.
Link (Phillip Lewitski) and his younger half-brother Travis (Avery Winters-Anthony) live with their brutal and abusive white dad: mixed-race Link has dyed his hair blond, evidently in a confused attempt to deny his ancestry. He has always been told that his Native American mother is dead, but when he finds out that she may in fact still be alive – from a hidden, unopened birthday card – Link angrily torches his dad’s truck and runs away with Travis on a mission to find his mom at all costs.
