Intrigue

Returning to her hometown of Vancouver on the news that her Caucasian father is on his deathbed, Rebecca learns from him before he dies that her aboriginal mother, Rita, did not abandon them twenty-five years ago because Rita did not love Rebecca as he had always told her, but rather he forced Rita to leave. As such, Rebecca goes on a search for Rita through Vancouver's notorious downtown eastside, where over the years many aboriginal women, marginalized in society, have been found dead, most under the mysterious but suspicious circumstance of being alone in their single room occupancy (SRO) hotel with excessively high blood alcohol levels. Many of these women were officially classified as missing before their dead bodies discovered. Although she comes across a few leads, Rebecca believes the strongest lead in finding her mother is through a man named Norman, who claims to have seen the woman in the photograph, who he refers to as Shadie, sometime recently. Rebecca will learn how much Norman truly knows about her mother, as well as about the dead and missing women.—Huggo

Unnatural & Accidental is the feature length dramatic film adaptation of the stage play entitled The Unnatural and Accidental Women by renowned Metis playwright Marie Clements. It is based loosely around the "unnatural and accidental" alcohol overdose deaths of native women living on skid row. Rebecca has returned home to be with her dying father. His last wish is that she track down her mother, an aboriginal woman who has long been missing. As she turns over the stones that hide the debris of the unwanted and forgotten, she is drawn into the mysteries of ten missing native women whose spirits lead Rebecca to the killer who still haunts the alleys, streets and hotels of this urban wasteland.—Anonymous

(this first appeared on realmoviereview.com) Carmen Moore plays Rebecca, a woman who sets out to find her aboriginal mother whom she has never known. Her search area is the dirty and dangerous mean streets that are being stalked by a serial killer (Callum Keith Rennie), who preys on marginalized native women. The theme of families and lives shattered and separated by alcohol carries on throughout.