The film tells the fictional story of a teenager named Aila and her plot for revenge against the sadistic Indian agent who imprisoned her in a residential school where rape and abuse are common.
Writer-director Barnaby weaves a surprising amount of tenderness into the fabric of violence, as well as a good measure of magic realism, to keep the gritty story engaging.
With a tone alternating between mournful, defiant and hopeful, Rhymes for Young Ghouls is a rewarding experience by a talented director who's sure to make his mark on Canadian cinema.
The film is told with a mix of lyricism and kicks to the gut, and is all the better for these shifts in tonality. It's remarkable how the narrative feels both highly specific to this community, yet near mythic in a more universal, classic sense.
As a history lesson about Canada's unjust treatment of Native Americans, it's often eye-opening, but as storytelling it's clunky and highly familiar, and the period re-creation is seldom convincing.
