''Rustic Oracle'' is a Canadian drama film, directed by

Sonia Boileau Sonia Boileau is a Canadians, Canadian First Nations in Canada, First Nations filmmaker belonging to the Mohawk people, Mohawk Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Biography Sonia Bonspille-Boileau was raised between Oka, where her French-C ...

and released in 2019. An exploration of the issue of

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women are instances of violence against Indigenous women in Canada and the United States, notably those in the First Nations in Canada and Native American communities, but also amongst other Indigenous peoples s ...

, 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, ...

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'', 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 is a First Nations (Mohawk) actress. Rice is known for her performances in ''The Twilight Saga (film series), The Twilight Saga'' (2008–2012) and in a series of PBS films adapted from the mystery novels of Tony Hille ...

and Brittany LeBorgne, with a cameo and voiceover by

Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (born August 8, 1993) is a Mohawk actress. For her performance in ''Rhymes for Young Ghouls'' (2013), she garnered a Canadian Screen Awards nomination for Best Actress. In 2023 and 2024, for her role on ''Reservation Dog ...

, to end the film, as an adult Ivy. The film, Boileau's second feature film after ''

Le Dep ''Le Dep'' is a 2015 Canadian psychological drama film directed by Sonia Boileau. Set in a fictional Innu community, the film's dialogue is mostly in French, with some Innu language, Innu-aimun. ''Le Dep'' is the first First Nations production of ...

'' (2015) but her first English-language feature, was shot in 2018, primarily around Oka and

Kanesatake Kanesatake () is a Mohawk (''Kanien'kéha:ka'') settlement on the shore of the Lake of Two Mountains in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers and about west of Montreal. People who reside in ''Kan ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

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

dandelion ''Taraxacum'' () is a 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 has a near-cosmopolitan distribu ...

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 ''Ci ...

'', November 13, 2020.

Distribution

The film premiered at the

2019 Vancouver International Film Festival The 38th Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) took place from September 26 to October 11, 2019. The opening film was Atom Egoyan's ''Guest of Honour'', and the closing film was Nicolas Bedos's ''La Belle Époque''. Awards The festival awa ...

.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 COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Most cases over the course o ...

. 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, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

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, assist ...

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 cit ...

chapter of the

ACTRA Awards The ACTRA Awards are Canadian accolades presented since 1972 to celebrate excellence in cinema, television and radio industries.Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards () 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) productions. Given annually by the Academy ...

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 award ...

at the

9th Canadian Screen Awards The 9th Canadian Screen Awards were presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television from 17–20 May 2021 to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2020. The presentations were held as a seri ...

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

Global News Global News is the news and Current affairs (news format), 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 ...

, March 30, 2021.

References

External links

* {{Discrimination against Indigenous peoples in Canada 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 Iroquois in popular culture