By John Corrado

Director Chris Eyre’s 1998 coming-of-age film Smoke Signals was a landmark for both American indie cinema and Indigenous self-representation, with its Native American cast and crew telling a story featuring authentic characters.

Among the film’s cast was Cody Lightning, the child actor who played the younger version of Adam Beach’s lead character Victor in flashbacks. Lightning now sort of returns to the role with his own directorial debut Hey, Viktor!, which he stars in as a version of himself.

Lightning plays Cody, a washed up former child actor living in Alberta who is still preoccupied with the role that made him semi-famous, prompting him to embark on trying to make his own self-funded “spiritual sequel” to Smoke Signals over twenty years later.

The result is a Canadian comedy that plays as a mix of meta commentary on the legacy of Smoke Signals, and a mockumentary about making a low-budget film. The film follows Cody and his manager Kate (Hannah Cheeseman) as they embark on producing their own movie, while an unseen camera crew follows Cody’s progress. Cody’s desperate attempts to recapture the magic include trying to bring back other members of the film’s original cast, including Simon Baker (also playing himself), who played the young version of Victor’s nerdy friend Thomas in Smoke Signals.

The comedy can be broad and at times a little gross. The material doesn’t always work, and has a dated quality to it at times (a running gag about Viktor being so desperate for cash that he has to do gay porn feels like it came straight out of the 1990s or 2000s). Supporting characters can also come off as one-note stereotypes, like the German financier (Phil Burke) obsessed with the original film who fronts Cody the cash for the sequel.

But the premise is still amusing enough to help Hey, Viktor! carve out its own identity, including some more clever bits (like a pretty funny running gag involving Cheeseman’s Kate being Cherokee). It’s in the film’s second half, when Cody needs to start reckoning with the consequences of his actions and come to terms with how the spectre of being a child actor still looms over his life, when the story becomes a little more interesting.

Lightning throws himself into the role, unafraid of playing a character who makes bad decisions and is even somewhat unlikeable at first, but starts to endear himself to us as the film goes on. While the movie is fictitious, and Lightning is playing an exaggerated comic version of himself, we can see him grappling with his own place in the legacy of Smoke Signals through the film. If Hey, Viktor! itself is in a different vein than Smoke Signals, it often works as somewhat of a gonzo tribute to Eyre’s original film, building to a pretty satisfying cinematic finale.

Film Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)

Hey Viktor! opens exclusively in theatres in limited release on March 15th. It’s being distributed in Canada by levelFILM.