Misty Upham and Melissa Leo star in a film by a woman, about women. Not a sissy or girly film, there, nevertheless , were marked womanness' in the testosterone challenged story. Perhaps it is the steely toughness that describes a mother in protection of her cubs that rivals a macho challenge anyday; A challenge which often lacks depth of commitment. Enhanced by a universal transcendance as protector, not just of your own cubs, but a shared protection of every mother's cubs.
The two women risk life and limb and capture to recover the cub of one of their charges; a Pakistani woman being smuggled across the Canada-US border. In the finale, Leo's caucasian privilege and anti-Mohawk sentiment is trumped by her shared protectiveness of her own children and what can be healed by and for Upham's character.
I'm not saying men are incapable of transcending boundaries and conflict nor that every woman magically possesses this ability. I do believe that there is a powerful force found in this universal motherhood that can be tapped by men and women alike in our quest for peace in our post-apocalyptic world. In the womanly spirit of Israeli and Palestinian women's peace efforts: Women in Black.
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