This rich and well constructed story begins with the camera following Jessie Threebears as he races his bike through city streets. He is a street wise high school boy placed in a foster care home. His social worker visits to tell him that he is to be reconciled with his family and his tribe. Jessie has big dreams of competing in the Tour de France and does not want to leave the only life he knows for the reservation. Without warning, 16-year-old Native American Jesse Threebears is uprooted from his latest foster home and returned to the reservation of his birth. The tribe greets him warmly but Jessie is angry and resentful. Slowly, he learns new truths.
Gradually Jesse begins to adjust to his new life with his grandfather (Graham Green, Dances with Wolves), as well as to find romance. But one boy, who knows the awful secret surrounding Jesse’s mother’s death, is determined to destroy Jesse’s newfound happiness. For the two adversaries, an annual horse race culminates in a life-and-death struggle that could finish them both.
This a very good movie with some of the same stars as Smoke Signals. A young Anishinabe man comes to grips with his grandfather after learning it was he who caused a fire that killed his mother and the father of another young anishinabe man. The other young man is played by Evan Adams.
This story addresses many themes--life on the reservation, adolescent alienation from family and community, forgiveness, belonging and self acceptance. It's a great story with a cast of some great Native American actors. Approx. 94 minutes.
