In Canada, we have an ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. According to research done by Statistics Canada, women of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit descent are six times more likely to be murdered than their non-Indigenous counterparts. They also face assault, both physical and sexual, at disproportionately higher rates, and the perpetrators are caught less frequently. If none of this information was bad enough, there’s also the fact that this violence is rooted in systemic oppression by a settler colonial state, and that the RCMP are complicit in, and in some cases perpetrate, these acts.
These statistics remain shocking, no matter how many times they’re published, and while steps have been taken, we are still a long way away from resolving this black mark on our nation’s past and present. This is the culture in which Nika & Madison was born. It’s the story of a young woman, Madison (Star Slade), who, after a night on the town, is sexually assaulted by a police officer. Her childhood friend Nika (Ellyn Jade) manages to intervene, but in the process, hits the officer on the head and sends him into a coma. Despite acting in defence, Nika and Madison realize that the most likely outcome of what happened is the police railroading them rather than serving justice to one of their own. Their only choice is to run.
Link: https://thatshelf.com/nika-madison-review-tiff-2025/
Nika & Madison Review: TIFF 2025
