Sterlin Harjo's gentle coming-of-age drama Four Sheets to the Wind opens in the hamlet of Holdenville, Oklahoma, where a young Native American man, Cufe Smallhill (Cody Lightning of Smoke Signals), discovers his father's dead body. His dad's last wish, it seems, was to be buried in the local pond. Cufe fulfills this request, packs his bags, and heads off to the metropolis of Tulsa, where he sets about building a new life for himself. Above and beyond its dramatic, narrative and aesthetic strengths, Harjo's film retains enormous sociocultural interest as one of the few films by, about, and starring American Indians - a rare feature to concern itself with contemporary Indian lifestyles in lieu of dramatizing Native American histories. Tamara Podemski co-stars as Cufe's sister Miri. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi