Tekehentahkhwa is a Mohawk girl trying to get into a private school. When the person in charge can't pronounce her name, she says to call her Beans because everybody does.
Beans is a coming of age story for the young girl, trapped between Grade 6 and Grade 7, girl and womanhood, all in the summer of 1990 during the Oka Crisis.
This is a fictionalized version drawn from Tracey Deer's experiences that summer. Deer co-wrote the story with Meredith Vuchnich and Deer directed the film. You might know Deer from Mohawk Girls, which she created back in 2005 (original documentary) and 2014 (TV show).
Kiawenti:io Tarbell, who worked with Tracey Deer on her acting debut on Anne with an E, stars as Beans. She starts the film being very timid. Beans wants to please her father and dotes over her younger sister Ruby. Her mother Lily wants her to get into that private school. Lily is also quite pregnant.
The coming of age story runs alongside how these characters live through the Oka Crisis of 1990. Her father is mostly off screen because the men are in a different place defending their land. Being at a supermarket and denied food because they were Mohawks. Hiding in a car as your windows are being smashed by people throwing rocks. Watching the police not care when the townspeople throw rocks at the cars with the Indigenous characters exemplifies why this film is important.
The cast includes Brittany LeBorgne (Zoe on Mohawk Girls) and a couple of members of the core group on Reservation Dogs: Paulina Alexis and D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai.
Kiawenti:io does a tremendous job with a mix of fear, curiosity, and yes, lust as puberty and hormones make their presence known. She offers that mix of maturity and childlike wonder. The film does a rather good job of balancing these stories.
2021 TIFF Canadian film preview
We can't really talk about Beans without also mentioning Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, the documentary on the Oka Crisis from legendary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin. You can find the documentary via the National Film Board of Canada.
We mentioned this and other documentaries during the tribute to Alanis Obomsawin at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.
The documentary can give the background if you are curious about the Oka Crisis. English and French Canadians should know this story and likely don't. Americans, well, this will give some insight into Indigenous history in North America.
Canadian film review: Rustic Oracle
CanadianCrossing.com Indigenous coverage
There is a back and forth in the film about what the white people say about the Indigenous people and vice versa. You hear a lot of "frogs" as some of the Indigenous characters refer to the French Canadians. Like in Rustic Oracle, you don't really hear the Indigenous characters speak French even though they live in Quebec.
This might seem like a small detail but this speaks to an isolation in living in that part of Canada and not knowing or speaking basic French words as needed.
Deer explains this in her Mohawk Girls documentary (2005). They spoke in English despite being in a French-speaking province. Deer said that the French was somehow seen as the enemy.
Tracey Deer's powerful film Oka Crisis coming-of-age story (q from CBC Radio)
CanadianCrossing.com film reviews
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
We rarely say this about a film but at about 90 minutes, the film is really short. The story goes by fast in a good way, surprised at how easy the story is to absorb.
Tracey Deer goes into her past to tell this story, leaving a lot on screen. As difficult as that must have been, the viewers are rewarded for her courage in telling this story. Tekehentahkhwa goes through a lot in just one summer, but what a summer that was.
A Canadian film doesn't need The New York Times level attention though the paper's review and coverage had high praise for the story and film.
Beans won Best Picture at this year's Canadian Screen Awards and won the John Dunning Best First Feature Film Award. The film was second runner up for the People's Choice Award at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.
Beans has played in theatres in Canada and is available on demand and in select theatres in the United States.
video credit: YouTube/FilmRise Releasing
photo credit: Beans film
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