PLOT: An adolescent arsonist runs away to Winnipeg and gets caught up in gang battles. The camera does not shy away from the poverty, violence or desperation in the lives of the characters.

A stryker, we learn, is a Canadian slang term for someone hoping to become a gang member.

Stryker is the story of one such wannabe, a young Native Canadian whose story begins with the torching of an old church on the Brokenhead First Nation Reserve.

Following his latest arson gesture against the white establishment, young Stryker (Kyle Henry) runs away to Winnipeg and gets involved with street gangs and prostitutes.

He encounters Omar (Ryan Black), a mixed-blood leader of a local Filipino gang. Stryker hopes to join Mama Ceece (Deena Fontaine), who bosses a gang called the Indian Posse, but that crowd doesn't want much to do with him.

For a while, Stryker finds shelter with a group of transsexual prostitutes, including the kind-hearted Daisy (Joseph Mesiano). He encounters a young Native prostitute named Ruby (Nancy Sanderson) and eventually winds up with a bizarre, pseudo-foster mother named Talia (Dominique Remy-Root), an abusive drunk who has had dozens of runaway Natives in her so-called 'care.'

For someone who says nearly nothing and expresses himself almost exclusively with his calm, angel's face and his lethal book of matches, Kyle Henry is the deceptively calm centre of Stryker. He appears to be an innocent in some ways, but he's an avenging angel, quietly setting fires as required to even the score.

Many of the cast members in Stryker are not professional actors but instead have some of the street experience depicted in the film.

It's a terrifying movie, frankly, getting inside the fear and violence of the character's lives as it does. There are drug skirmishes, full-on gang fights, endless desperation and despair. By the time a cop offers Stryker a 'starlight tour' -- the euphemism for a beating and a drive so far from town that you could freeze to death before you stumble back -- the anxiety levels are overwhelming.

Filmmaker Noam Gonick has said that in the Native street gangs of Winnipeg he has observed a tremedous camaraderie; he says he admires the impulse to resist. Stryker reflects the arson that plagued Winnipeg over the last few years, the Native poverty, the attitude of the police, the animosity between Natives and Filipinos.

Depressing? Yeesh -- but also hopeful in its depiction of Stryker's determination. Stryker is a real education. See it and weep.

(This film is rated 18-A)
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