(wish) Indian Summer: The Oka Crisis (2006)

(wish) Indian Summer: The Oka Crisis (2006)



INFO:
Gil Cardinal, Canada, english, 2006,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496202/
http://www.cineteleaction.com/en/pages/OKA.html
http://www.fipa.tm.fr/en/fipatel/2007/fip_14675.htm

(en) Indian Summer: The Oka Crisis is fiction based on headline news events that took place in the summer of 1990 in the town of Oka, near Montreal (Quebec), Canada. The actual events drew global attention placing Native rights issues centre-stage.

In the largest deployment of Canadian troops since the Korean War, Canadian troops move into the town of Oka to dismantle blockades by Mohawk Indians who are protesting against the town’s plans to build on Mohawk sacred land. The land in question consists of a pine forest and an ancient burial ground on which the town plans to expand an existing golf course and to pave a parking lot.

The protestors block a dirt road leading to the cemetery. The police attack and try to remove the protestors by force in a fiasco of a raid and, tragically, an officer is killed. In retaliation for the police raid, more Mohawks join the protest and block a major bridge. Left stranded, angry commuters start rioting. The minor protest erupts into a major crisis and a national stage for Indian rights everywhere in the country.

Mounting pressure and failed attempts to find a resolution moves the government to call in the army, which dismantles the blockades. The protesting Mohawks are arrested, reminiscent of their ancestors’ struggles and losses.

The Mohawks win the battle against Oka town’s plans to build on sacred land. However, the centuries’ old war of land ownership remains unresolved.

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoVt5pBLwtQ