Frozen River

"Desperation Knows No Borders"

2008 1h 37m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

🍅

88%

FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.1

IMDB

★6.6TMDB · 371🍅88%Rotten Tomatoes●82Metacritic★7.1IMDB · 26,675

DramaCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A financially strapped mother joins a Mohawk woman to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States.

“Desperation Knows No Borders”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Melissa Leo
Ray Eddy
Misty Upham
Lila Littlewolf
Charlie McDermott
TJ
John Canoe
Bernie Littlewolf
Jay Klaitz
Guy Versailles
Dylan Carusona
Jimmy
James Reilly
Ricky
Michael O'Keefe
Trooper Finnerty

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Courtney Hunt
Writers: Courtney Hunt
Languages: English, French, Urdu, Mandarin
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 5.5× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 18 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: English, French, Urdu, Mandarin.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Courtney Hunt, shot by Reed Morano. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Peter Golub. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Kate Williams shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Melissa Leo and Misty Upham and Charlie McDermott carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Courtney Hunt directs. Reed Morano behind the camera. Peter Golub scores. Kate Williams cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, French, Urdu, Mandarin.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Made its money back 5.5× over at the box office.
3Released 18 years ago.
4Dialogue crosses 4 languages: English, French, Urdu, Mandarin.
5Directed by Courtney Hunt, shot by Reed Morano. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Peter Golub. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Kate Williams shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Melissa Leo and Misty Upham and Charlie McDermott carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Desperation Knows No Borders".
10IMDB entry: tt0978759 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 10 themes, including "trailer park", "illegal immigration", "human trafficking", "border crossing".

The technical file

Cinematography: Reed Morano
Original score: Peter Golub
Editing: Kate Williams
Production design: Inbal Weinberg
Costume design: Abby O'Sullivan
Makeup / hair: Lindsey Novotny
Runtime: 97 min · 1h 37m
Status: Released
Budget: $1,000,000
Box office: $5,457,664
Return: 546% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Frozen River (2008)
Rotten Tomatoes: 88% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 82/100
IMDB rating: 7.1/10 · 26,675 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Nominated for 2 Oscars. 32 wins & 39 nominations total

Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Courtney Hunt

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-08-18
★ 7/10
Well it's certainly aptly titled as we head to a northern New York reservation where the Mohawk people live on the border with Quebec. There's precisely no opportunity here, so many of the locals really only subsist from hand to mouth on government handouts. "Ray" (Melissa Leo) has two young children; a hapless, gambling, husband and lives in a dilapidated motor home from which they hope to soon escape. The husband does a bunk though, and that leaves her in the lurch and struggling to pay the bills. At this point, serendipity takes a hand in her life with a chance meeting with "Lila" (Misty Upham). She's also a single parent who is also struggling to make ends meet. Initially, their meeting does not go well - certainly not for the bloodied "Ray" - but their communal needs quickly see them working together to help with some smuggling across the now frozen St. Lawrence River. What are they smuggling? People! That's also adding to the dangers of their illicit operations as the police and immigration authorities know what is going on, and are determined to clamp down. The women have goals in mind to improve their lives, but can their good fortune hold against the cold, the terrain and the authorities relentless pursuit? This is an interestingly bleak character study of families in communities which little hope. These women are trapped in a repetitious cycle that they never have enough money to escape, and here that relentlessness spreads to their offspring - especially the young "T.J." (Charlie McDermott) who is ill-equipped emotionally to adopt the role of "man of the house" whilst his mother is out trying to raise the cash to keep a leaky roof over their heads. There develops quite a poignant chemistry between the two women as their initial hostility becomes something more akin to an inter-dependency and auteur Courtney Hunt does imbue a sense of the hopelessness but also the aspirations of her well portrayed characters. Maybe not the cheeriest of films, but who'd have ever thought Pakistani folks would be entering the USA via Canada across a river of ice?

Production companies