The Love She Gave, The Joy She Knew (2022)
| The Love She Gave, The Joy She Knew | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Elliot Rileson |
| Produced by | Willow Preston |
| Starring | |
Running time | 119 minutes |
| Country | Zamastan |
| Language | Caticeze-English |
| Budget | Z$9.8 million |
| Box office | Z$48.5 million |
The Love She Gave, The Joy She Knew is a 2022 Zamastanian murder mystery drama film written and directed by Elliot Rileson. The film stars Weston Sharpe and Madison Robertson as a Wildlife Service tracker and an ZIS agent, respectively, who try to solve a murder in Apelis National Park, outside Foreman City, Pahl. Aaron Watts, Brenton Lindsey, and Scott Mcdonald also star. Rileson has said that he wrote the film to raise awareness of the issue of the high number of Catica First Nations women who are abused and murdered in Zamastan. The Love She Gave, The Joy She Knew premiered at the 2022 Tofino Film Festival and was released on July 14, 2022. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, grossing $45 million against an Z$9.8 million budget. It won Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay at the Pine Awards and was nominated for Best Picture, losing to Road to Maastir.
Plot
During the winter in the Apelis National Park in Pahl, expert tracker and Wildlife Service agent Evan Brown discovers the frozen body of 18-year-old Amber Molson at a remote location. She is barefoot, without proper winter attire, and has a blood-stained forehead and groin. ZIS Special Agent Nataly Carey arrives to investigate a possible homicide, because the ZIS has jurisdiction over murder cases in National Parks, which are allotted Catica First Nations properties. The next day, Carey learns from Amber's father Seth that his daughter was dating a new boyfriend, but he does not know the man's name or where he lives. The autopsy shows blunt trauma and sexual violence and confirms Brown's deduction that the girl died from pulmonary hemorrhage caused by rapid inhalation of sub-zero air. The medical examiner is unable to classify the death as a homicide, so Carey cannot get additional help from her ZIS supervisors.
In sharing the traumatic revelations of the autopsy with Seth, Brown attempts to comfort him over the loss of his daughter, as his own daughter Kaitlyn had previously passed;
Evan Brown, The Love She Gave, The Joy She Knew (2022)
Brown discovers that Amber's new boyfriend is Lukas Murray, who works security at a nearby oil drilling site. The next day, Brown and Carey discover Lukas's body, nude and ravaged by scavenging wildlife. Brown tells Carey about the death three years earlier of his 16-year-old daughter Kaitlyn, who was a friend of Amber's. Kaitlyn's body was discovered in the snow, following a party at the Brown house while his wife and he were away. No one was charged in her death.
Carey, accompanied by Tribal Police Chief Bentley Brockhouse, two sheriff's deputies, and two of Brockhouse's officers visit the drilling site where Lukas works, where they are met by several of the company's security guards and Declan, their supervisor. They claim Lukas stormed off a few days ago, following an argument with Amber, and has not been seen since. One guard mentions they heard about Amber's body being found and Carey states that Amber's name has not been released to the public. The guards claim they learned it by monitoring a police scanner. One of Carey's team notices the guards are slowly surrounding them and draws his weapon. The confrontation quickly escalates into an armed standoff which Carey defuses by asserting ZIS authority. She asks to see where Lukas was bunking, and they resume their approach to the trailer.
A flashback shows Amber in bed with Lukas, in what seems like a loving relationship. Unexpectedly, Lukas's colleagues barge into Lukas's trailer after a night of hard drinking. Lukas's roommate Nate taunts them and tries to sexually assault Amber, which provokes Lukas to violence. The other guards retaliate by beating Lukas while Nate assaults Amber. Lukas's attempt to fight back gives Amber an opportunity to escape, while the group beats Lukas to death.
In the present, Brown has traced the tracks from where Lukas's corpse was found back to the drilling camp. Carey and her team approach the trailer. Brown, looking down at the group from a distance, radios a warning to Brockhouse. From inside the trailer, Nate responds to a veiled warning from Declan by firing a shotgun through the door, wounding Carey. A gunfight ensues at point-blank range, and Brockhouse, his officers, and the deputies are killed. Just as the guards prepare to execute Carey, Brown kills four with his high caliber rifle. A wounded Nate flees on foot. Brown catches Nate, knocks him out with his rifle butt, then takes him to the foot of Ayden Peak. After forcing him to confess to what happened to Amber and Lukas, Brown offers Nate the same chance Amber had: rather than being shot, he can try to stay alive by running to a distant road while barefoot and wearing only lightweight clothing. Nate runs but quickly succumbs as his lungs give out from the frigid air.
When Brown visits Carey in the hospital, he praises her toughness. He later finds Seth sitting outside his house wearing his "death face" paint and holding a handgun. Brown tells Seth the case is closed and the man responsible for Amber's death went out "with a whimper." They share grief over their daughters' deaths. A title card follows this scene, stating that missing persons statistics are kept for every demographic group except Catica First Nations women, whose numbers remain unknown.
Cast
- Weston Sharpe as Evan Brown
- Madison Robertson as Nataly Carey
- Aaron Watts as Bentley Brockhouse
- Briar McLaughlin as Amber Molson
- Brenton Lindsey as Seth Molson
- William Granholm as Lukas Murray
- Scott Mcdonald as Nate
- Samuel Markle as Declan