War Pony

Follows the intertwined lives of two young Lakota boys living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

• Jojo Bapteise Whiting as Bill
• Ladainian Crazy Thunder as Matho
• Jesse Schmockel as Echo
• Sprague Hollander as Tim
• Wilma Colhof
• Iona Red Bear
• Woodrow Lone Elk
• Ta-Yamni Long Black Cat
• Jeremy Corbin Cottier
• Ashley Shelton as Allison

In 2015, while on production of American Honey, Riley Keough befriended two extras, Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy, while filming in South Dakota and later introduced them to her best friend Gina Gammell.[2] Over the course of several years, the project began to take shape, through writing workshops, improvisation sessions, and meeting hundreds of locals in the community, to make the story authentic.[3][4] The group began discussing an idea for a film revolving around two indigenous locals growing up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.[5] They began writing the script based upon Bob and Reddy's life experiences and stories they had heard, ending up with too much material, and decided to split the story between two characters, and collaborated with local producer Willi White.[6]

The film had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2022, in the Un Certain Regard section.[7] It won the Caméra d'Or for Best First Feature.[8] Shortly after, Picturehouse Entertainment acquired U.K. and Irish distribution rights to the film.[9] In March 2023, Momentum Pictures acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film.[10] It is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2023.[11] and in the United States on July 28, 2023.[12]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 16 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.60/10.[13] On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 69 out of 100 based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[14]

• War Pony at IMDb