Night Raiders Parent Guide

It’s 2044 and North America has been ravaged by war, leaving adults subsisting in desolate cities. And it’s an adult-only world: all children are forcibly separated from their parents and enrolled in boarding schools. Distraught parents are assured that their kids are receiving the best education and will enjoy the benefits of citizenship when they graduate, but the truth is more sinister…

For six years, Niska (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) has been living in the wilderness with her daughter, Waseese (Brooklyn Letexier-Hart), determined to preserve their family and indigenous culture. When Waseese is seriously injured, Niska faces an unbearable dilemma, eventually deciding that medical treatment is worth the price they will have to pay. Months later, still distraught, Niska meets an organized resistance group which promises to help her recover Waseese but which wants her help in spiriting children off into the bush.

It’s impossible to watch this movie without recognizing that it mirrors real-world experiences of residential schools and cultural genocide. Months before this movie’s release, Canadians were rocked by the discovery of over one thousand unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools. And Canada was not the only nation which forced indigenous children into a brutal system designed to “kill the Indian in the child”: The United States ran similar “civilizing” institutions, as did Australia and New Zealand. The death toll from these institutions was shockingly high (over one quarter of students in some Canadian schools died), and the cultural and community damage that rippled out from those programs still scars indigenous communities today. This lends a certain timeliness to the film, as well as a deep emotional weight. Niska’s plight is all the more tragic when you’re forced to remember that this fictional tale draws on lived experience.

Night Raiders addresses other issues, like technology and militarism, but the one I found most interesting was the struggle by the conquered to maintain some kind of cultural identity post-defeat. While I’m not necessarily expecting a star-spangled invasion of the Great White North, Canadian border security is an issue you rarely see addressed in film.

While this could be an interesting and educational film, the content concerns make it largely unsuitable for children and make a Restricted rating likely. The primary issue is profanity, with over a dozen f-bombs throughout, as well as several brief scenes of sanitized violence. However, considering the absence of serious substance use or sexual content, I think this would be appropriate and even beneficial for high-school aged audiences. I mean, how often do you have an opportunity to entertain and educate teens about a highly topical and sensitive issue? The movie has a definite “YA novel” vibe but for a teen audience, that’s not a bug; it’s a feature.