Quebec, summer of 1990: a twelve-year-old Mohawk girl known as Beans finds her childhood overtaken by the 78-day standoff remembered as the Oka Crisis. Tracey Deer directs this 2021 Canadian drama, which runs 92 minutes.
What is Beans about?
Beans is caught between two stages of life. Part of her still belongs to the innocence of childhood, while another part is pulled toward a more reckless adolescence. The outbreak of the Oka Crisis removes any chance of making that shift slowly. As tension spreads across Quebec and the rest of Canada, she is pushed to grow up at speed and to become the tough, resilient young Mohawk she feels the moment requires of her. The story stays close to her perspective, so the wider events of that summer are framed through the experience of a girl who is still working out who she is. It is a coming-of-age drama first, with a real historical crisis as the pressure that shapes her choices.
About the cast
Kiawentiio heads the cast list, followed by Rainbow Dickerson, Violah Beauvais, Paulina Alexis and D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. Joel Montgrand, Taio Gélinas and Brittany LeBorgne complete the principal ensemble. Because the drama is built around a twelve-year-old protagonist and her inner transition, the lead performance carries much of the film's weight, with the wider ensemble filling in the family and community world around her.
Context & significance
The Oka Crisis was a standoff between the Mohawk community and government forces in Quebec that lasted 78 days during the summer of 1990. The events drew attention across Quebec and throughout Canada, and they remain a significant reference point in Canadian history. Beans approaches this period as the setting for a personal story rather than as a documentary record: the historical backdrop is present, but the focus is on how one young person experiences it. Within the drama genre, the film belongs to the tradition of coming-of-age stories in which a public event and a private turning point unfold side by side. It is a Canadian production directed by Tracey Deer, released in 2021, with a compact running time of 92 minutes that keeps the narrative tightly centred on its main character.
Watching Beans on Ktime
Beans is available on K-Time with both a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, so viewers can choose to watch in Farsi or in the original language with Farsi text on screen. Log in with a free K-Time account to start streaming; the page itself is open to read, and the Farsi-first interface makes it easy to switch audio and subtitle options.