A blank spot on the map, rugged and relentless. The winters here in Wyoming are especially tough, with temperatures going down to the minus double digits. When you run outside in the wilderness, your lungs might burst. That‘s what seemed to have happened to a young woman who is discovered in the snow by hunter and tracker Cory Lambert. Her body isn‘t just lying anywhere, but on the edge of the Arapaho and Shoshone Native American reservation Wind River and the victim is also Arapaho. That makes the case unimportant to the state police. The Native American authorities should deal with it. Young FBI agent Jane Banner is sent there from her training site in Las Vegas 800 kilometers away. It starts out as a formality, but the more she founds out about the conditions on the reservation, the more she feels it is her duty to solve the case. With the help of Cory who is more involved in the case than she first thinks, she searches for traces to find out what happened that night.

In the Native American reservation countless young woman die and disappear every day and their cases remain unsolved. Taylor Sheridan, the prize-winning screenwriter of films like SICARIO and HELL OR HIGH WATER, dedicates his directorial debut to them. WIND RIVER is a devastating study in loss, a keenly observed sociogram, and a nerve-racking thriller. The indie film is carried by Jeremy Renner‘s sensitive portrayal of Cory. The powerful images of the relentless landscape and the score by Warren Ellis and Nick Cave round out Sheridan‘s film and make it a film that sticks with you long after it‘s over.

Lars Tunçay

Translation: Elinor Lewy