Fancy Dance Review: Touching Tale Sheds Light On Missing Native Women [Sundance]

This year's Sundance Film Festival hosted its fair share of works by Indigenous creators, with one of the most impressive standouts being the feature-length fiction film Fancy Dance. Led by a captivating Lily Gladstone and a fresh-faced Isabel Deroy-Olson , the film follows a family who comes face to face with tragedy and disillusionment when one of their own goes missing.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY Fancy Dance introduces audiences to Jax and her niece Roki , who are in the midst of their daily routine at the Seneca-Cayuga Reservation. This routine involves hustling strangers out of their car keys, which only serves to highlight the dire circumstances that society has thrust upon them, as it's clear that Jax is a loyal and loving aunt in every respect.

Life without hope is meaningless, which is something that Fancy Dance understands all too well, but hope without action is just as damaging. When Jax's father Frank comes into the picture, having been granted custody of his estranged granddaughter alongside his new wife, his fumbling attempts to connect with Roki highlight how ineffective empty words are when the speaker has made no move to help.

Tawi may be considered the biggest weakness in Fancy Dance, acting as more of a metaphor or cipher than a real person, but her absence is crucial to the narrative. The history of violence against Indigenous women, and of missing Native women who are never found, is a silent epidemic that continues to this day.

Though there is not as much dancing as the title would imply, Fancy Dance uses the upcoming powwow as a symbol of hope that never dies. Roki awaits the grand occasion because it represents her chance to see her mother again, but it also offers audiences the opportunity to see the Indigenous community that lifts her and Jax up.

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