This is a gripping account of the senseless loss of an 8 year old child on Toronto's inner-city slums peopled in a big chunk by Caribbean immigrants.
One man, Gene, played by Stargate's Peter Williams - decides to host a community therapy session for the black males of his community. It seems to be great resistance at first, but rather than make the men come to him - he went to them at their favorite hangout, a Caribbean takeaway restaurant.
This same eatery is run by the grandparents of the little boy who was caught in the crossfire of a drug deal gone bad, the janitor is a limping Jamaican called Clip, who must use medication to stay sane. As you watch the whole film, you realise all of the characters are not just pure good and evil - Villains have redeeming aspects and heroes or heroines have flaws.
A young male caught between right and wrong is DX or Dexter, whose mother used to be the girlfriend of Gene - what is not stated but is always floating is not that DX is Gene's son, but that Gene could have been DX's dad, and as such, he feels responsible for the youth. DX himself is a young father, caught in the lies and connivings of young drug-lord Lloyd, who helps "to run" the Caribbean eatery.
The phantom-parenting of Dexter/DX and the fact he still cares for DX's mother is a conundrum in the view that Gene is married to a white woman (Who does not wash her hands after using the bathroom, nasty! All the Caribbean in the audience gasped at the omission of soap) and they have two daughters...
Despite the rage of Gene's wife at the community therapy, it eventually uncovers what really happened with the death of little Andrew, the 8 year old boy and it leads to a sad yet not totally unexpected conclusion.
Director of "A Winter Tale", Frances Anne Solomon, is English-born of Trinidad parents, she took a whole decade to get this film off the ground! Financing came mainly from Telefilm Canada and Chum TV, rather than direct scripting she would create situations where the actors would develop the dialogue - this was reinforced with constant research of gang violence in T-Dot as Toronto is known.
She called it a low-budget film - 800-thousand Canadian, so with little money she took her time to develop the plot and engineer the dialogue.
The final scene where Lloyd gets his just desserts is apparently based on a true story where a gang member had a dispute with another leader got on a bike, dealt with it and then pedalled off to a funeral to be a pall bearer! This picture was a great ensemble piece - some may say there are too many loose ends in the film, but for me it seemed just the same way that real life is! A gripping and eye-opening introduction to another side of Canada...
One man, Gene, played by Stargate's Peter Williams - decides to host a community therapy session for the black males of his community. It seems to be great resistance at first, but rather than make the men come to him - he went to them at their favorite hangout, a Caribbean takeaway restaurant.
This same eatery is run by the grandparents of the little boy who was caught in the crossfire of a drug deal gone bad, the janitor is a limping Jamaican called Clip, who must use medication to stay sane. As you watch the whole film, you realise all of the characters are not just pure good and evil - Villains have redeeming aspects and heroes or heroines have flaws.
A young male caught between right and wrong is DX or Dexter, whose mother used to be the girlfriend of Gene - what is not stated but is always floating is not that DX is Gene's son, but that Gene could have been DX's dad, and as such, he feels responsible for the youth. DX himself is a young father, caught in the lies and connivings of young drug-lord Lloyd, who helps "to run" the Caribbean eatery.
The phantom-parenting of Dexter/DX and the fact he still cares for DX's mother is a conundrum in the view that Gene is married to a white woman (Who does not wash her hands after using the bathroom, nasty! All the Caribbean in the audience gasped at the omission of soap) and they have two daughters...
Despite the rage of Gene's wife at the community therapy, it eventually uncovers what really happened with the death of little Andrew, the 8 year old boy and it leads to a sad yet not totally unexpected conclusion.
Director of "A Winter Tale", Frances Anne Solomon, is English-born of Trinidad parents, she took a whole decade to get this film off the ground! Financing came mainly from Telefilm Canada and Chum TV, rather than direct scripting she would create situations where the actors would develop the dialogue - this was reinforced with constant research of gang violence in T-Dot as Toronto is known.
She called it a low-budget film - 800-thousand Canadian, so with little money she took her time to develop the plot and engineer the dialogue.
The final scene where Lloyd gets his just desserts is apparently based on a true story where a gang member had a dispute with another leader got on a bike, dealt with it and then pedalled off to a funeral to be a pall bearer! This picture was a great ensemble piece - some may say there are too many loose ends in the film, but for me it seemed just the same way that real life is! A gripping and eye-opening introduction to another side of Canada...