War Pony

Not a prequel to the 2011 Michael Morpurgo WW1 drama, War Pony instead follows the intertwining paths of two residents of America’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as they face poverty, familial dysfunction and oppression.

First-time director Gina Gammell and star of American Honey Riley Keough co-helm this thoughtful drama that uncovers a community largely disconnected from its own heritage, becoming dependent upon drugs and petty crime in the process. They’re not without hope though, as they occasionally experience ancestral visions which offer to show them another, more traditional path.

Written in collaboration with two members of the Lakota community and with improvisation as a key part of the rehearsal process, War Pony aims for realism over sensationalism and was the winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Camera d’Or for its trouble.