Production is underway in Sudbury and Peterborough, ON on Indian Horse, an adaptation of Richard Wagamese’s award-winning novel.

The Ontario/B.C. coproduction is produced by Terminal City Pictures’ Christine Haebler, Screen Siren Pictures’ Trish Dolman and Devonshire Productions Paula Devonshire. Roger Frappier, who this year won the CMPA’s Established Producer Award, serves as executive producer.

The feature follows Saul Indian Horse who, at age seven, is taken from his Ojibway family and committed to a Catholic residential school, where he witnesses abuse and is not allowed to speak his own language. Despite this, Saul develops a talent for hockey which ultimately leads him to the pros.

The film is directed by Stephen S. Campanelli (Momentum) from a script by Dennis Foon (On the Farm). It stars newcomers Sladen Peltier, AJ Kapashesit and Edna Manitouwabe. Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant), Michiel Huisman (The Age of Adaline) and Michael Murphy (Fall) also star, alongside Melanie McLaren (Tkaronto) and Johnny Issaluk (Two Lovers and a Bear).

Elevation Pictures will distribute the film, which is produced by Screen Siren Pictures, Terminal City Pictures and Devonshire Productions, in association with Media House Capital. It was produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, Ontario Media Development Corporation, The Shaw Rocket Fund, The Harold Greenberg Fund and William F. White International.