Wind River (2017)

This film is about missing Native American women in the USA, focusing on an example drama concerning one of them, written and directed by Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water, Sicario). “While missing person statistics are compiled for every other demographic, none exist for Native American women. No one knows how many are missing” is the claim—at least when this film was made. MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) data couldn't be found because federal databases (like the FBI’s NCIC) historically failed to properly classify or track Native Americans, often mislabeling them or leaving them out entirely. So he decided to create a film about it to make the point, which he does admirably well.

We start off in the snow-smothered wilderness of the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) is a local U.S. Fish and Wildlife tracker who spends his days culling predatory wildlife threatening livestock—and his personal life quietly grieving the tragic death of his own teenage daughter three years earlier. We see him caring for his son, caring very much about his ex-wife (who is also Native American), going about his craft of meticulously preparing the bullets for his job, and just generally going about his work. It is clear that he and his ex-wife have split, having never fully dealt with the tragedy of their daughter.

Anyway, one day, while he's out tracking mountain lions in the deep snow, Cory discovers the frozen body of an 18-year-old local Native American woman, Natalie Hanson (Kelsey Asbille). We actually see her running across the snow, barefoot, clearly anguished, in the opening scene of the film.

The FBI arrives in the shape of rookie agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen), looking and behaving much like Clarice Starling from Thomas Harris's Silence of the Lambs series of books and films! She's green, under-prepared, and has been sent there from Las Vegas alone—not even with a partner. It's clear that the FBI are not prioritising this very highly. She arrives completely unequipped for the brutal Wyoming winter (wearing heels and a light jacket) and immediately realises she is out of her depth. Cory volunteers to act as her guide and tracker.

Jane gets a taste of how you get around in the snow in Wyoming with a fast-paced ride on Cory's snowmobile, riding shotgun! They study the body and she asks the local chief of police if Cory can help her. Even though he's not a cop, he knows the terrain inside-out. An autopsy reveals that the girl died from exposure after running miles through the freezing sub-zero night, but crucially, she had been violently raped prior to her flight. Because she choked on her own lung-blood from the sub-zero air, the coroner ruled it a homicide caused by exposure rather than a direct murder, which initially limits federal jurisdiction.

So Cory and Jane trace Natalie’s final steps, finding more evidence of wrongdoing on the way, and eventually—with a team of local cops for backup on snowmobiles—arrive at a remote trailer where her boyfriend, Matt Rayburn (Jon Bernthal), lived with a group of men working as security guards at a fracking camp. From here, we start to get the reveals as to what happened to Natalie via some flashbacks. We spend some time with Natalie's parents, who are obviously devastated, with her mum breaking down completely.

So the rest of the film is the hunt, really—across the snow with an experienced tracker and rifleman, with a rookie FBI agent in tow, and it's a question of whether justice can be served, by whatever means the people involved can find. There's a tense shootout in the mix, plenty of taut atmosphere, and lots and lots of cold snow!

It's a moving film in many ways. It can be slow-paced here and there, but the drama rescues it from ever being dull. The cinematography does its own job really—tailor-made for Taylor! It's nicely directed and the main leads do a convincing job. Elizabeth Olsen plays the rookie FBI agent convincingly enough, switching from a green girl out of her depth to a capable professional when the shit hits the fan. But mostly, there is Jeremy Renner as the male lead, whose quiet resolve and calm exterior belie his readiness to leap into action as needed.

It's not a true story, as I intimated above, but a symbolic one to look at the issues. It dips a little into some of the jurisdictional complexities of who has power on what land or territory, and also highlights the plight of people who live in such isolated communities, often in poverty and unemployment. We also get a taste of the reality of living in a place where enforcement backup (and indeed medical assistance) is hours away and law resources are tiny.

Apparently, the film’s release actually helped put pressure on lawmakers, eventually leading to the introduction and passing of legislation like Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act, which aimed to fix these exact reporting and data collection gaps. It is certainly an intelligent and engaging watch, making some important humanistic points.