From the Serie Reservation Dogs has Killers of the Flower Moon Martin Scorsese’s latest film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the representation of American “Natives” is currently in full upheaval. Voices are emerging from within indigenous populations to propose new narratives, far from clichés, and which would finally give us a view of the reality of an experience that has until now been largely ignored by fiction, television and cinema combined.
Fancy Dancethe first feature film by documentary filmmaker Erica Tremblay, presented at the Sundance Festival in 2023 and now available on Apple TV + and benefits from the presence in its credits of actress Lily Gladstone. Heroine of Killers of the Flower Moonnominated for an Oscar, in recent years she has become the face of this new generation of Native American talents.
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Between human drama and police suspense
The actress plays Jax, a young marginal woman living on a reservation in the Seneca-Cayuga Nation in Oklahoma, who is looking for her missing sister, and in the meantime takes care of her daughter, Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson). At the risk of losing custody of Roki to her father (Shea Whigham), Jax decides to take the young girl to the pow-wow she dreams of going to. Soon, they will find themselves hunted by the authorities…
Mixing human drama and police suspense, Fancy Dance follows twists and turns that are sometimes too conventional, but nevertheless seduces in its sensitive portrait of two heroines on the outs. Above all, it powerfully depicts the reality of daily life on this reservation in Oklahoma (the state where the Killers of the Flower Moon), between the indifference of the authorities, the D system and hopes for change. An endearing work. Available on Apple TV + (1 h 30).
