Frozen River has an approval rating of 88% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 135 reviews, and an average rating of 7.31/10. Directed by Courtney Hunt. Frozen River is a 2008 American crime drama film written and directed by Courtney Hunt. Frozen River (2008) is available on Netflix United States. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was shown at the MoMA Film Exhibition, the Seattle International Film Festival, the Provincetown International Film Festival, the Nantucket Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival, and the Traverse City Film Festival. In rural northwest Iran, Gheirat, a modest charcoal producer, is pushed into a tragic spiral after his son, sentenced to jail, evades to Azerbaijan. Bonus features include an audio commentary by screenwriter/director Courtney Hunt and producer Heather Rae and the original trailer. Whenever the two visited his family they heard stories about Mohawks smuggling cigarettes by driving across the Saint Lawrence River when it freezes. A mom looks for another source of income, when her husband leaves with the money meant for the new mobile home. He and his mother clash over whether he should remain in high-school and look after his little brother Ricky or drop out to work. Frozen River is a taut, suspenseful thriller; a troubling of borders both cultural and national; and testament to the virtues of communion, empathy and compassion. While searching for him, she encounters Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), a Mohawk bingo-parlor employee who is driving his car, which she claims she found abandoned with the keys in the ignition at the local bus station. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? With Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott, Michael O'Keefe. Frozen River DRAMA Nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay), winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and described by Quentin Tarantino as "the most exciting thriller Ive seen this year", Frozen River has been acclaimed as one of the best American debuts this decade. For the Mohawk, sovereignty has real meaning, and they protect it fiercely.The main character (aside from the Mohawk woman) is a white woman living in the area who's husband is a degenerate gambler and has taken off with the money she had saved to get them a new modular home. Frozen River A college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple living in his apartment. Two women - one white, one Mohawk, both single mothers faced with desperate circumstances - are drawn into the world of border smuggling across the frozen water of the St. Lawrence River. Both characters are shown to be hardened by their experiences of life: profoundly human and at the same time, in different ways, very strong. A man attempts to reconnect with a woman from his past; telling the story of how the two were whimsical teen lovers, married for the three days in 1989. It received two Oscar nominations: Best Actress (Melissa Leo) and Best Original Screenplay (Courtney Hunt).