Watch film curator George Crosthwait’s take on War Pony, the directorial debut of Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, and written with first-time writers, Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy.

The most authentic and well researched depiction of reservation precarity since Chloé Zhao’s docudrama work in Pine Ridge (Songs My Brother Taught Me, The Rider). As with these touchstones, the presence of non-indigenous filmmakers raises some concerns, but the development of the script and characters with Native American writers Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy, and producer Willi White goes some distance to mitigate this. All that being said, the resulting film feels undoubtedly true to lived experience. A loose, dual narrative structure which takes the time to establish a superb sense of setting before gradually twists into a gripping flashpoint.