🎬 Cold Road (2023) – When the Frozen Highway Becomes a Trial of the Soul

"On the loneliest road in Canada… someone is hunting more than just prey."

Genre: Thriller – Survival – Psychological – Cultural Identity
Director/Writer: Kelvin Redvers (Dene filmmaker)
Main Cast: Roseanne Supernault (Tracy), Taylor Kinequon (Eve), Samuel Hoeksema (Officer Romer)
Runtime: 100 minutes
Premiere: Yellowknife International Film Festival (Nov 2023), Theatrical release in Canada: Jan 2024

🧩 Plot: A Frigid Road to Survival
Tracy, a Cree-Métis woman, sets out with her dog Pretzel on a cold journey across northern Saskatchewan to be with her dying mother. But soon, a mysterious truck driver begins stalking her—honking, tailgating, and playing twisted mind games.

As night falls and temperatures plummet below -30 °C, with fuel running low, Tracy realizes there’s no turning back. The journey transforms into a psychological and physical battle for survival—where the confines of her vehicle become her prison, and every frozen breath a countdown to possible death.

🌍 Themes: Identity, Violence, and Survival
Directed by Kelvin Redvers of the Dene Nation, Cold Road isn’t just a suspenseful thriller—it’s a deeply cultural and political statement. The film highlights the vulnerabilities of Indigenous women in remote areas and the systemic gaps in law enforcement.

The faceless truck driver becomes a metaphor for the predatory forces Indigenous women face, while cold, dismissive interactions with authorities echo the real-life tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

🎭 Performances & Atmosphere
Roseanne Supernault delivers a visceral and emotionally evolving performance as Tracy—shifting from confusion to rage to icy determination.

Taylor Kinequon supports with a quiet yet impactful role as Eve, reinforcing the humanity in this bleak journey.

Samuel Hoeksema plays Officer Romer, a well-meaning but inadequate symbol of systemic failure.

The film’s icy visuals, haunting engine sounds, and suffocating silence between breaths create an almost unbearable tension.

📌 Reception & Significance
Critical response has been mixed:

Exclaim! found the pacing lacking and dialogue too expository.

Chris Knight (Original Cin) praised the film as “a chilly experiment with Duel-like suspense and frozen-terrain uniqueness.”

Beyond critiques, Cold Road is significant as one of the first major films created by and for Canada’s Dene community. It was even screened in remote Arctic regions and aimed to raise awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and systemic neglect.

🔚 Conclusion
Cold Road isn’t a conventional action thriller with bullets and explosions—it’s a chilling survival symphony, one that explores what it means to live, fear, and fight through isolation and indifference.

It’s a film where the real monsters aren’t seen—but felt—lurking in the rearview, the silence, and the snow.