Safe Return Doubtful

This is a dual coming of age film about two young Oglala Lakota boys at key stages in their childhood; one positive, the other pretty much the opposite.

Bill in his early 20s, is already the father of two sons. He is hard-working, taking any opportunity to earn a bit of cash, and constantly trying to better his situation, but the first problem he has is to earn enough money, $400, to pay the bail of his girl-friend, the mother of his second son. By chance, he gets involved with a rich white couple who live just off the reservation after helping guy out when his car breaks down. He is soon invaluable to them doing all sorts of odd jobs.

Matho is 12 and is thrown out of his father’s house after an incident, and left to fend for himself. From there his life spirals out of control. He is soon thrown out of school, in trouble with the police and homeless.

The boys are growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation where everyday life is a struggle, with alcoholism, drug abuse and crime a regular part of their young lives.

It might appear that when the credits roll two white co-directors come across as exploitation of Indigenous culture, but the film is a collaborative effort, as it is written by Bill Reddy and Franklin Sioux Bob, who shared their own stories from the reservation.

The two young actors then take what could otherwise be a cliche-ridden variation on a familiar story of troubled youth, to a whole other level.

First-time actor Jojo Bapteise Whiting stars as Bill in a startling performance. He buys a poodle from a shady character and hopes to breed the dog for big money. The wealthy white guy he comes across is a nasty piece of work, often seeking relations from the young women on the reservation, but Bill sees right through him.

Matho is played by another actor without experience, Ladainian Crazy Thunder, who puts in another incredible performance.

As much as the film is distressing its real strength is when it captures the tight bonds that bind the community; the highly symbolic anarchistic redistribution of resources at the end of the film, involving a buffalo and very many turkeys, and a funeral in which a convoy of cars swerves in snake-like formation with the landscape of the plains stretching out behind them.

IMDb score 6.9 / 10 – My score 8 / 10