#TIFF24 Review: Aberdeen (Discovery)

By John Corrado

The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5th to 15th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here.

The feature debut of Ryan Cooper and Eva Thomas, who serve as co-writers and co-directors, Aberdeen is a mix of slice-of-life portrait and more serious melodrama. The film is named for Aberdeen (Gail Maurice), an Indigenous woman from Peguis First Nation, who at the start of the movie is drunkenly passed out on a park bench in Winnipeg.

This might just be the rock bottom that Aberdeen needs to start turning her life around. She has an estranged daughter (Darla Contois), and is trying desperately to provide a better life for her grandkids, who she left in the care of her brother Boyd (Ryan Black), who has cancer (a largely unrealized plot point) and was forced to put them in foster care.

Aberdeen needs a new status card in order to access her treaty payments, but can’t get one without photo ID, and can’t get a new photo ID without another form of identification. Through this circular, catch-22 problem that she finds herself in, the film is trying to show the patchwork nature of Canada’s Indigenous Affairs system.

Part of Aberdeen unfolds in this sort of meandering, hangout movie way, and there is some entertainment to be found in watching Aberdeen flitting about downtown Winnipeg with her flamboyant, “two-spirited” best friend Alfred (a scene-stealing Billy Merasty) and his “boy toy” Raven (Liam Stewart-Kanigan). The story is somewhat derivative, and the ending feels rushed, with a number of highly dramatic beats all happening in rapid succession. But underpinning it all is Maurice, who anchors the film with a fine leading performance.

Film Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)