If you enjoy a good heist movie with tension, action, humour, sarcasm and more than a few double crosses you will enjoy the Canadian feature film “The Great Salish Heist”. No state secrets, secret and revealing information on a disc, gold or diamonds are the object of the heist.
Steve Joe (Darrell Dennis) is a traditional archeologist for the Moquahat peoples. In a tragic motor vehicle accident a drunk driver collides with his truck killing his son Daniel. Steve had previously dug up an ancient Moquahat mask and sold it for personal gain. He is convinced the ancestors have cursed him for the misappropriation of sacred property creating a cascade of misfortune. Can he placate the ancestors?
On the rez sits the Royal Western Canadian Museum which is shipping out a First Nations artifact exhibition for a European tour and for Steve removing the artifacts will cause ancestors to wreak havoc on the rez. The answer would be to “remove” them and replace them with replicas prior to their shipment to Europe. Steve assembles a far less than a crack heist team of rezy Indians. They may have the right spirit but as for skills they are seemingly inept.
Numerous complications arise to the extent that the planned heist appears in all respects doomed to failure. The viewer will enjoy all the twists and turns.
I can’t reveal the result but it is enjoyable entertainment with a well written screenplay. Aside from the sheer entertainment value there are juicy jibes at the Canadian Government and well-meaning white folks in the museum crowd. What is most refreshing is despite the many stereotypes portrayed here the Indigenous peoples are portrayed positively as savvy instead of in the oft miserable gloom and doom documentaries on Canadian Indigenous peoples. I am witnessing a series of emerging positive television series and films such as this one that don’t dwell on the misery and tragedy. Accordingly I appreciate the political statement made by “The Great Salish Heist” although it may be solely in my imagination.
“The Great Salish Heist” showed at the Victoria Film Festival and begins a limited Canadian theatrical release on 9March2024.
Directed and co-written by Darrell Dennis.
RKS 2024 Film Rating 88/100.
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