The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open: One of the year's best Can-films, a road movie measured in hope not miles
By Thom Ernst
Rating: B-plus
The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open is an inner-city road picture. It’s a mouthful of a title that some (me) will have trouble remembering, but it’s a picture that few will be able to forget.
Certainly, it’s received its due thus far, being named as one of the top-10 Canadian movies of the year by the Toronto International Film Festival, and as one of three finalists for the Toronto Film Critics association’s $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award to be presented at a January 9 gala.
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Violet Nelson in The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open
As road pictures go, the journey here is not that far—a few blocks on foot, several more by Uber—but the distance between where they begin and where they might end is not measured in miles, but in hope.
Áila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) is on her way home when she comes across Rosie (Violet Nelson) a pregnant and seemingly passive young Indigenous woman, being verbally abused and threatened by her boyfriend. Áila wants to help, but Rosie, who appears to have endured this sort of treatment before, is reluctant to accept help, particularly if the police are involved. Eventually Áila manages to erode some of Rosie’s mistrust and the two women set off to find Rosie a place from her abuser.
This is an arthouse/festival film to be sure. Directors Kathleen Hepburn and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ create a real-time drama where the action plays out in words. We never get a clear view of Rosie’s abuser, but his angry threats trail after them like misfired bullets.
Both women are Indigenous but live two seemingly diverse lives, though one suspects their base experiences are the same. But the film does not subscribe to a feel-good format where bonds are made, and new friendships are formed. Neither does the film seem too interested in handing over a triumphant moment of personal growth.
The film is gentle, subtle, patient and wholly authentic. What makes it essential is not only in its ability to create a drama that’s real, harrowing, haunting, and hopeful but in its ability to keep playing in our heart long after it’s over.
The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open. Directed by Kathleen Hepburn and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers. Starring Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Violet Nelson. Opens Friday, December 13 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.