Wild Indian(2021)

Vertical Entertainment

1h 30m

Release Date: Sep 3, 2021 | Limited

Two men learn to confront a traumatic secret they share involving the savage murder of a schoolmate.

Releases

Original Release | Sep 3, 2021

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(U.S. Only)

Director & Top Cast

Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr.
Director

Tres Garcia
Daniel

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Digital, Scope; 5.1 sound

Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English,Ojibwa

Summaries

Plot Summary

In an opening scene a Native American man with smallpox hunts in the woods while at home his wife is dying.Makwa Gi-Zheg is a young Ojibwe boy in Wisconsin in 1988. Abused by his father and bullied at school, his only friend is his cousin Teddo. Makwa develops a crush on a girl and is envious of James, who draws the girl's attentions.Makwa's teacher - a priest - gives a sermon saying a tortured spirit is an unworthy sacrifice before God, and that unwillingness to accept responsibility will bring suffering that will spread like a plague.Teddo teaches Makwa how to shoot a rifle. Makwa holds a kitchen knife over his sleeping father's head. In the woods he chances to see James walking and calmly takes aim and shoots him. He picks up the spent shell casing. Makwa asks Teddo for help and they bury James together. At home when his father makes to strike him, he bites his father's hand. He runs to the woods and urinates where James's body is buried.In 2019, Makwa is a businessman in California calling himself Michael Peterson. He has an infant son with his white wife Greta. He asks a co-worker his opinion on his braid, saying "It's sort of my brand around here." The co-worker agrees that it ticks all the right boxes. After an initially impassive response to Greta's news that she is pregnant, he assures her he is pleased. He then goes to a club and pays to choke a stripper, continuing to choke her long after she begins to panic. He recites Hail Marys.Teddo is released from his latest prison term, a ten-year sentence for drug dealing. He moves in with his sister Cammy and her young son Daniel. She apologizes for not visiting him. He gets a job and bonds with Daniel. Cammy tells him Makwa has moved away and never returned, even for family funerals. He retrieves stashed money and a pistol and visits James' mother, Lisa. He breaks down sobbing, saying he has to tell her about her son.Makwa finds Teddo waiting outside his apartment building and hustles him in before people can see him. Teddo draws his pistol. Makwa asks if he wants money, a car, a job. Teddo says he confessed and shoots Makwa in the arm. He aims but is unable to shoot again, and lays the gun down. Taking the gun, Makwa asks if he told them about him. Teddo says he did and Makwa immediately fires several times, killing Teddo.Makwa's attorney assures him that it is clearly self defense, but that a Wisconsin investigator wants to speak to him about a boy's disappearance 35 years ago. Remains have been found and Makwa has been implicated. In Wisconsin an attorney tells Makwa he could be charged with James' murder, based on the remains and Teddo's confession to Lisa. Makwa takes flowers to the bedridden Lisa in hospital to assure her of his innocence, calling Teddo mentally ill, drunk, and criminal. Lisa believes Teddo. Makwa claims all the worthwhile Native Americans died fighting, and his generation is descended from cowards. He puts his hand over her mouth, threatening what will happen if she doesn't keep her mouth shut. Lisa says she won't say anything.The prosecutor asks Makwa perfunctory questions about the day of James' murder. Makwa says he doesn't recall. The prosecutor says Teddo's claims aren't credible based on his criminality and mental state, and Lisa is in a state herself. He regards James' death as just another missing Native American and ends the interview. Before getting into his car, Makwa takes the spent shell casing from his pocket and drops it on the ground.In California, Makwa receives his promotion but declines to celebrate. Saying he doesn't know if he will be okay, he leaves for home where he shows Greta his bullet wound. He goes to the beach and gazes out to sea. The film cuts to the Native American man with smallpox lying next to his dead wife. Makwa collapses into a sitting position on the beach. (thanks to Wikipedia)

Storyline

Decades after covering up his classmate's murder, Michael (Michael Greyeyes) has moved on from his reservation and fractured past. When a man who shares his violent secret seeks vengeance, Michael goes to great lengths to protect his new life with his wife (Kate Bosworth) and boss (Jesse Eisenberg) from the demons of his past. — Front Row Filmed Entertainment