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January 11, 2023
Genre cinema without too many genre elements. Night Raiders is a slow and lo-fi indie production that sets up a sci-fi premise, then does relatively little with it. The focus lies on the drama and the characters, but the somewhat silly narrative gets in the way and those hoping to get a good sci-fi thriller will find very little here.
In 2043, children are considered state property. They are taken away from their homes and sent to schools where they are trained to fight in the war. Niska has been able to protect her daughter by hiding in the woods, but they finally get to her little girl. Unable to give up the fight, she joins a group of underground rebels who plan to break the children free.
There is nothing that screams 2043 here, except some drones and a different societal model. The future is clearly shaped in such a way that no effort had to go into the sci-fi part of the film. Performances are decent but nothing special, the same goes for the presentation. Night Raiders offers an unfortunate balance of indie/arthouse and genre elements, that left me pretty disappointed.