The disappearance of a young Cree woman in Toronto traumatizes her Northern Ontario family, and sends her twin sister on a journey south to find her.
"Joseph Boyden’s Through Black Spruce was never going to be an easy novel to adapt – even before debates surrounding Boyden’s Indigenous identity cropped up in 2016. To tell the novel’s two intertwined stories – one focusing on Will, an alcoholic Moosonee bush pilot who’s run afoul of drug runners, the other on Will’s niece Annie, who’s searching for her missing sister in Toronto – requires a deft hand and a pitch-perfect sensibility for dissecting the layers of trauma lurking beneath both characters.
Director Don McKellar lends highly experienced hands to the exercise [and] provides ample space for Brandon Oakes and Tanaya Beatty to deliver career-making performances. As the beaten and wounded Will, Oakes in particular demands immediate attention. The few scenes where the actor is simply left alone in the Northern Ontario wilderness linger longer than even Boyden’s original, now problematic prose." – Barry Hertz, Globe & Mail