Heiners Filmseiten – Dreamspeaker (en)

Dreamspeaker

Francaise title: Le conteur de rêves
Russian title: Шаман
Original title: Dreamspeaker

Youth drama – Canada
Production year: 1976
Movie length: 76 minutes

Director: Claude Jutra
Writer: Cam Hubert
Cinematograph: John Seale
Music: Jean Cousineau

Movie description:

Eleven-year-old Peter is plagued by demons and sent to an institution for setting fires. Peter escapes and hops a freight train headed into northern British Columbia. He is befriended by a native shaman or »DreamspeakerÂ«. The shaman makes some strides but is unable to get to the root of Peter’s problems. Peter is captured by the police and taken back to the institution where he slides down even further.

After setting fire to a school, Peter Baxter, an emotionally disturbed eleven-year-old boy who never speaks and exhibits self-destructive rages, is placed in a juvenile detention centre. He brawls with the other boys and eventually escapes to the forests of Vancouver Island, where he meets a Native shaman, or dreamspeaker, and his happy-go-lucky mute friend. The dreamspeaker helps Peter control the terrors that drive him to acts of violence, but his recovery is interrupted when the authorities track him down. Tragedy befalls the dreamspeaker and his friend, and Peter, who regresses after being forced to return to the institution, hangs himself.
Â»Dreamspeaker« is a novel by Canadian author Anne Cameron also known as Cam Hubert.

Boy Actors