Imprint Trailer

I just watched Imprint, a 2007 thriller directed by Chris Eyre that is set on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It tells the story of Shayla Stonefeather, a Lakota prosecutor, who, along with her white partner and boyfriend, takes a case against a Lakota teenager who is found guilty of murder. Soon after the case is over, she returns to the reservation and we learn that her father is in a vegetable state which came on soon after the disappearance of her brother, who had problems with meth. The rest of the story involves Shayla trying to understand the meaning behind the strange voices and spirits she sees in her parents’ home, partly with the guidance of a medicine man, and with some help from an old flame named Tom.

I thought the film was suspenseful, had cool effects, and beautiful landscapes. If you are interested in more Native thrillers, you may want to check out two films that are adapted from Tony Hillerman novels. These are Skinwalkers and A Thief of Time, which were incidentally both also directed by Chris Eyre, but are both set on Navajo territory. (I haven’t yet seen Coyote Waits.) Although Shayla is a strong female lead, I hadn’t considered, as does this reviewer, that this is something out of the ordinary for Native films. While some feature films like Smoke Signals or Skins center on men, I think of strong female protagonists in movies like Edge of America, Older than America, or the documentary On the Rez. So, while I think having a strong female lead is great, I had already felt like Indian women are shown as strong, substantial characters or people in quite a few films. I also did not understand what the reviewer meant when she says that this is not a conventionally Indian movie, since the many Native films I’ve seen show that Indian directors, like directors from all over, produce innovative, surprising material that shows they are thinking outside of the box. Which is why I was annoyed to see (spoiler alert) the white boyfriend cast as the villain. I liked that the film countered some stereotypical views, like the  fact that it centers around a middle class family as opposed to a poor Lakota family. Pine Ridge tends to be portrayed as very downtrodden (Skins and Children of the Plains are two examples). And I was glad that although you could see Shayla and Tom getting back together, they didn’t actually have a romantic scene. But why do the parents have to instinctually dislike the white boyfriend? Actually, he turns out to be a jerk, so that’s fine. But why does the jerk have to be white? As the reviewer above points out, why not make him another ethnicity and really surprise us?

The other theme that I think is important but doesn’t get thoughtfully developed is the whole idea of “selling out.” Shayla is depicted as having “sold out” just because she took a case against a Lakota. Her car is vandalized and her mother also equates her cold-heartedness as being an identity issue; of not “knowing who she is.” It seems like the conflicts that I think many Indians must face regarding identity and assimilation and culture deserve to leave the viewer questioning to what degree or in what ways can one can assimilate another culture and still maintain one’s own? In other words, it’s a pretty complex, messy, and controversial topic that deserves more. Rather, in this film, I felt like the issue is too neatly tied up. The story develops in such a way that serving as prosecutor against your own kind seems to be equated with selling out and once Shayla realizes the error of her ways, she seems to be almost cleansed and becomes good again. I should point out that had the racially biased nature of the trial been developed more, I may have felt less strongly about this point. Also, one can’t fault Eyre too much for possibly wanting to make a good thriller and leave it at that. Every movie can’t deal with all societal concerns.

So, it’s a good thriller with an interesting story that is beautifully shot, but the cliche character and the simplistic treatment of the issue of identity left me wanting more. In terms of using this in the classroom, I would think it might be of interest to film students because of the special effects, cinematography, and plot twist. Also, the medicine man speaks in Lakota and this may be of interest to people studying the language. Those teaching about the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation may also be interested in its depiction in this film.