If you were to select the genre of the film as apocalyptic, I would partially accept that. There is much more going on here than you might think and it might very well have to do with Canadian Indigenous lore and history if your mind lets you escape from the obvious message of “Finality of Dusk” which is dear humankind don’t keep on destroying your environment or you pay the price which in “Finality of Dusk” means poisonous air deadly in minutes. The year is 2044. The location bush country Manitoba, Canada. This theme of environmental destruction jives with the Indigenous attitude of taking from the environment with gratitude and respect instead of greedily consuming it all and facing peril because of that greed.
Ishkode (Marika Sila), an Ojibwe woman, and Niife (Cherrel Holder) an African climate refugee struggle for survival in this environment very much COVID patterned with governmental advertising/propaganda about the necessity to wear government approved masks and filters and many penalties for disobeying government promulgations. Whatever government is in charge here has an authoritarian bent. Ishkode and Niife are pursued by a deaf man Odin (Chris Dodd) who has a passion for murdering people and taking their masks while saturated by flashbacks of his wife and child he keeps watching from a recording of them communicating to him from an “air security camp”.
Adding to the terror are wild savage creatures resembling Grizzly bears of which we hear their ferocious howls and see only their shadows. They can hear far better than they can see so the survivalists like Ishkode and Niife in the Manitoba bush rarely speak for fear of attack.
Ishkode has a map she frequently studies with some writing on it “Arabim pa de mi ni Paradise”. What that means I know not but I surmise she is on a search for paradise. Or is this but a voyage to death in a world beyond?
As an apocalyptic film is but fair to middling. As Eagle Vision and APTN, the entities behind the television series “Tales from the Rez” are involved in its production one would expect an Indigenous slant which is bolstered by the film giving credit to a team of “spiritual advisors”. A non-Indigenous audience, including me, may not pick up the spiritual references in the film. But having some interpretive fun here how about saying Odin represents colonialism chasing both an African and an Ojibwe wishing to steal their rightful property (masks). Could it be the destruction of colonialism will result in liberation and paradise for colonized people? What is the Final Destination patch with an Indigenous drawing on it?
“Finality of Dusk” will have its Canadian premiere at the Whistler Film Festival in British Columbia screening on 1December2023 and virtually starting on 4December2023.
Directed by Madison Thomas.
RKS 2023 Film Rating 91/100.
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