The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open

Touching, poetic and intimate drama about domestic abuse and motherhood of two Canadian indigenous women. Ália and Rosie meet by chance at a bus stop. When Ália notices Rosie – barefoot, pregnant and panicked, threatened by her violent boyfriend – she decides to intervene.

Rosie is a young, poor First Nation woman from Vancouver. She is pregnant and fled her home from her violently abusive boyfriend. Like Rosie, Ália (played by co-director Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) is from indigenous descent but comes from a very different social class. When Ália notices Rosie, sobbing and frightened in the rain at a bus stop, she instinctively decides to help and rushes Rosie to her apartment.

‘I look out for myself,’ Rosie says. At first, she rejects being helped by Ália. At the same time, she seems to long for it. Seemingly in one continuous hand-held shot, we witness the women slowly and carefully open up and develop a fragile partnership. Beautiful, unconventional and deep-running.