Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A movie that all Canadians should see. The horror for Canada's aboriginal children living in Religious Residential Schools needs to be seen by all of our citizens. Seeing this film would be a first step in understanding the dysfunction in many aboriginal families that we often see and hear about today both off and on Canadian Native Land Reserves. Many aboriginal children were literally kidnapped from their reserves by powerful Indian Agents. This was terrifying for both the children and the families. An attempt of assimilation by the government and churches in Canada failed for the most part ruining so many lives. A very good casting and meaningful story make this a film worth watching.I would like to see this film become available to all schools in Canada.

I first saw this movie in middle school.....i remember this movie so much because it impacted me to such a degree. the emotional journey the main character takes you through helps as a viewer to understand the horrors that have been inflicted upon the natives of north America. I firmly believe that this movie is not only good for private home use, this is a great educational tool as well. I think that movies like this are why film is such a valuable teaching resource and such a valuable tool for educating a broad public audience at home via television. Overall a great film and i recommend it to teachers for their classes, and parents to show their children.

This was a great movie I thought at portraying the native life in the schools but I thought that it was a little unbelievable. If someone was trapped in a plane the more logical choice than pounding on the window would to be try and find a handle, I thought the characters at times made foolish choices like following the road after escaping instead of going across the prairies to make it harder for the man to catch you. Other than that it was a good movie although difficult to follow the plot at times it was entertaining in some parts but a lot of the time became very, very boring which is why I only wanted to give it a 6 out of 10. I would not recommend this movie to anyone who just wanted to watch something but it would be a good in school movie as it deals with racism and a great amount of other things.

Canadian cinema has left an indelible mark on films about Aboriginal people and films about life on the Prairies during the Great Depression. In the film "Where the Spirit Lives", these two areas meet. As of this writing, the imdb users have given this film a 9/10 rating and with valid cause. The storyline is strong yet ultimately predictable. The movie's main force comes with the contrast between the utopic world of the Aboriginal life on the reservation/trapline and the much dystopic world of the white man/Catholic residential school. The film begins with the heroine Komi enjoying an innocent, culturally rich,nearly paradisal life outdoors. The viewer is made to recall this opening scene when the antagonist Reverend Buckley(played to menacing perfection by David Hemblen) gives this line which seems to support the Catholic church's theory at the time: "These children come to us from a dead culture; it's like a millstone around their necks; our job is to remove this terrible burden and give them their freedom". Later, Reverend Buckley uses the analogy of knocking the old soil from a plant's roots to help it grow. These ironic lines help him justify taking these, as he calls them, "little brown children of the prairie" from their families and way of life and forcing them to learn the white ways. Another nice poetic touch from the film is when Rachel, a young student who was sexual abused by a FEMALE matron(another nice detour from the cliche)escapes to witness her people's Sun Dance ceremony where she can "Touch the sun and become a star". Rachel's subplot helps to reinforce both that their culture is anything but "Dead" and that life in the whiteman world is not a desirable as the priests and leaders at the school would like to think. Rachel's attempt to retain her culture's Sun Dance ritual is inspired by the heroine Komi's refusal to give up her Indian name, her language, her smudging(smoke and prayer)ritual, her rite of passage to womanhood, and mainly her contact with her family. Another nice ironic/symbolic contrast is the snippet of a hymn the children sing at the school: "All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God loves them all". This seems to neatly sum up the sentiment of the fimmakers. Yes, the Lord loves all people; it's too bad some of HIS PEOPLE don't. This is the prototype film on Residential Schools and it has everything a classic film on Aboriginal people should have including music by Buffy Sainte Marie and an appearance by actor Graham Greene.