[2] The cast also includes Susan Kent as Andy's wife Susan and Bruce Dern as neighbour farmer Hank, as well as Will Oldham, Scott Olynek, Brendan Hunter, Geordie Cheeseman, John Warkentin, Robert Nogier, Ray Pearson, Linnea Mullen, Katrina Beatty, Cristina Menz, Brian Copping, Lianna Makuch and Ian Leung in supporting roles.
I can imagine an entire thesis built around it being a commentary on colonialism - in the opening scene, Andy finds an ancient arrowhead and then throws it away - but one could also watch the film without ever giving that reading a second thought.
You could also lean into the way the movie offers several arguably dated suggestions for what it means to be a real man - provider, husband, father, worker, handyman and, in the case of Dirk, chauvinist.
"[4] Anne T. Donahue of The Globe and Mail wrote that "cerebral and slow-burning, the film delves into the mythos surrounding what makes a man while tackling the binary of 'us' versus 'them.'
Sparks’s understated albeit commanding turn as the strong, silent Andy works in tandem alongside Armstrong’s yellowed sceneries and desolate landscapes.