Inkwo for When the Starving Return

This visionary stop-motion animated adaptation of Tłı̨chǫ Dene storyteller Richard Van Camp’s original short story is brought to life by Michif/Métis director Amanda Strong and Spotted Fawn Productions in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada. Set two lifetimes from now, the film follows Dove, a young, enigmatic genderfluid warrior who discovers both the burden and strength of their Inkwo—ancestral medicine and truth—as they confront terrifying flesh-eating creatures that grow stronger with each life they consume. Guided by a frog helper and fortified by alliances across the boundaries of species and spirit, Dove must embrace their identity and their gift to protect what remains of Earth’s humans and animals. Featuring the voice talents of Paulina Alexis, Tantoo Cardinal and Art Napoleon, this Indigenous futurist tale is at once spine-tingling and deeply empowering—a rallying cry to resist greed, honour ancestral teachings and reimagine the future through courage, kinship and medicine.