| Nika & Madison, two cousins and former best friends from the First Nations reserve, are brought back together when Madison is sexually assaulted by a white cop and Nika comes to her rescue, only for the two to have to go on the run when they realize their word means nothing with the entire system rigged against them. It’s a drama about racial injustices and how many women are suffering on their own. | | 2025
Directed by: Eva Thomas
Screenplay by: Michael McGowan, Eva Thomas
Starring: Ellyn Jade, Star Slade
|
A small Canadian independent movie starring two indigenous girls, but a movie made with so much honesty and genuineness that it shines with power and finds a way to give us that silver lining of hope.
This film is filled with contrasts of opposites. Nika & Madison are no longer best friends because their lives are just so different. Madison moved to Toronto to go to university, and she would probably like her classes if all the partying didn’t get in the way of her homework. She also gets mistaken for being white by her roommate, since she is just as obsessed with clothes, makeup and Instagram as any other privileged white girl would be. But Madison came from the same home and community as Nika, a girl who could never be confused for being white. She works at the convenience store on the res and goes hunting for fun. She thinks Madison is too superficial to still be worthy of her friendship.
But when she hears that Madison has been arrested at a bar just outside of the res, Nika immediately has her find your friend app open and is tracking Madison’s phone in the back of a police car. Which is suspiciously driving towards neither the res nor the police station and then stops in the middle of nowhere. Nika doesn’t even stop and think she just reacts and rescues her friend.
On the other side of the system sits two opposite detectives investigating the physical attack of one of their own. Detective Warhurst is an older white male who thinks this is an open and shut case, two indigenous girls tried to murder a good police officer for no reason because they hate cops. He also thinks storming onto the res and threatening everyone is the best way to arrest the two girls. But Detective Timmins is a black woman who was just hired and is running point. The little bits of info that they get from the inured officer’s body cam and cruiser cam suggest that Madison is innocent and her friend was acting in defense.
With Nika and Madison on the run both in the forests in the First Nations reserve and then within downtown Toronto, they have no reason to believe they can trust anyone. History suggests they’re right.
The themes Nika & Madison explore and they all fit together are very clear right from the very beginning. The film never really goes anywhere unexpected or surprising, but it’s still a very well made, engaging film with great leads that holds a mirror up to our society, in particular the cross-section of law enforcement and indigenous peoples.
|
