Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school in Canada ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.
Sugarcane is a quietly devastating documentary that chronicles the investigation into abuse and missing children at the St. Joseph Mission residential school in British Columbia. Its narrative structure is exceptionally strong for a documentary, weaving personal testimony, archival materials, and an ongoing investigation into a coherent and emotionally urgent story. The cinematography is competent and sensitive but not visually adventurous. The film's subject matter, while part of a broader wave of reckoning with Canada's residential school system following the 2021 Kamloops discoveries, is handled with enough intimacy and specificity to feel distinctive rather than generic. The ending carries real emotional and moral weight, offering no easy resolution but providing a sense of communal bearing-witness that feels earned and meaningful.