Bones of Crows

Cree matriarch Aline Spears survives a childhood in Canada’s residential school system to continue her family’s generational fight in the face of systemic starvation, racism, and sexual abuse. She uses her uncanny ability to understand and translate codes into working for a special division of the Canadian Air Force as a Cree code talker in World War II. The story unfolds over 100 years with a cumulative force that propels us into the future.

Synopsis

Reviews

ALIbambam

Jul 17, 2025

Writer, Producer and Director Marie Clements' complex and fast-paced movie Bones of Crows has captured the complex effects of Canadian residential schools' legacy of abuse through the voice of Aline Spears (Grace Dove), a Cree woman forced to endure sexual, physical and emotional abuse at a Canadian Roman Catholic run residential school. What sets this story apart from others is the complex telling through PTSD flashes that weave not only her story but the stories of three generations in her family whose voices represent eras of nuanced racism culminating in child death cover-ups, suicide and lateral violence, to become redemptive when Aline's lawyer daughter heads the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and brings her mother face to face with her abusers. Brilliant and heart wrenching -- a must see if one wants to truly understand the impact of generational trauma inflicted on the lives of First Nation peoples.