EMPIRE OF DIRT (Peter Stebbings). 99 minutes. Opens Friday (November 22). For venues and times, see listings. Rating: NNN
Peter Stebbings’s follow-up to Defendor, his quirky psychological superhero movie, is a quiet, absorbing look at the cycle of abuse and abandonment among three generations of First Nations women.
Lena (Cara Gee), a 30-year-old single mom, has been drug-free for eight years but is gradually losing touch with her teenage daughter, Peeka (Shay Eyre). When near-tragedy strikes, Lena and Peeka hitchhike north from Toronto to stay with her mother (Jennifer Podemski), a gambling addict who kicked her daughter out years earlier. Also still in town is Lena’s ex (Luke Kirby), who may or may not be Peeka’s dad.
Stebbings never finds a consistent tone for the film, which wobbles between earnest understatement and something grittier and more exciting. And the dirt metaphor in the title doesn’t pay off. But it’s beautifully shot, newcomers Gee and Eyre are revelations, and the central theme of cultural pride is stirring and urgent.
