Rhymes for Young Ghouls

Rhymes for Young Ghouls is set on the Red Crow reservation in 1976. It tells the story of Aila (Devery Jacobs), a 14-year-old Mi’gMaq girl who has been rendered parentless by the suicide of her mother and imprisonment of her father Joseph (Gould). Aila’s been left to the pathological parenting of her drug addled, dope-slinging uncle Burner (Oakes), who’s raised her to become the weed princess of Red Crow. When her father, Joseph, is released from prison, he’s determined to right past wrongs. But he faces a brother who doesn’t want him upsetting the drug trade, a daughter who doesn’t need him, and Popper, a psychotic Indian Agent who wants him back in prison or dead. What Joseph doesn’t know is that Aila plans to leave the reserve upon his release. The only thing keeping her there is the drug money stolen from her by Popper and her affection for the lost boys of the local residential school, Saint Dymphna’s. In a final bid to escape the reserve, she hatches a plot to rob Popper blind and get her revenge.

Rhymes for Young Ghouls was writer/director Jeff Barnaby’s first feature film.