Aberdeen | TIFF 2024 | Review by: Stefano Bove

In their feature directorial debuts, Ryan Cooper and Eva Thomas put everything out there in this emotional tale for us to feel the struggles of an indigenous woman trying to navigate life in modern Canada. Aberdeen,( Gail Maurice) has struggled her whole life between having absentee parents and losing her home to environmental issues. Now homeless, we learn that history has repeated itself as she fights to have a relationship with her daughter and has lost her grandchildren to the foster system. 

The system is constantly pushing Aberdeen down and she feels like she can never get ahead.  On top of all her life struggles, she hits rock bottom yet again as she loses her ID and is rendered powerless to the point that even her status is questioned. The simple task of replacing a lost ID is something that every Canadian goes through but Aberdeen not trusting the system and constantly in defence mode, makes the task impossible. The contrasting interactions between the systems Government offices and the reservation is the real meat of the film as we see first hand Aberdeen constantly raising her guard to defend herself and drop it when she feels she is around people she can trust. 

Everyone around her including her brother and best friend, Alfred, constantly lecture her to just try and work within the system. Aberdeen's long history of distrust does not make it easy for her to play by the rules. To her, playing by the rules is admitting defeat.

Aberdeen is an emotional tale of the many struggles indigenous Canadians have been dealing with for generations. Many were thrown into foster care, living a life of abuse and feeling unwanted from the country that said they would protect them. Aberdeen is at a crossroads, she must choose to begin playing by the systems rules around her or risk losing the little she has left.

4/5

Review by: Stefano Bove