The Cinematheque

“Hey, Viktor! adds to a growing canon of complex representations of Indigenous identity … Lightning is deliriously unhinged and is clearly unafraid to bare all in this personal send-up as a washed-out actor living off the fumes of the past.”

Aparita Bhandari, The Globe and Mail

Twenty-five years after Chris Eyre’s iconic film Smoke Signals, Cody Lightning (Samson Cree Nation), who portrayed a young Victor Joseph in the aforementioned film, directs and stars as a struggling actor attempting to get a sequel made. Lightning plays a fictionalized version of himself in this raunchy mockumentary—a grown-up child actor who’s only getting offers for pro-fracking commercials. To revive his dying career, he sets forth to get ​“Smoke Signals 2: Still Smoking” made with the original cast, only to find out they all hate him! Special appearances are made by original cast members Gary Farmer, Irene Bedard, and Simon Baker, who played a young Thomas Builds-the-Fire. A hilarious but deeply personal take on the price of fame.

Best Dramatic Feature
imagineNATIVE 2023

“Wildly funny … Both a mockumentary—one that plays on the idea of fame and cultural capital—and, much like the film it’s tapping into, a journey of self-discovery.”

Kelly Boutsalis, TIFF 2023