‘Where the Spirit Lives’ (NR)

Mourners at Ayatollah Khomeini's funeral showed more restraint than the hysterical bunch behind "Where the Spirit Lives," a ham-fisted melodrama about the Canadian government's attempt to force so-called Christian values on native Indians. While the moviemakers' hearts are in the right place -- that is to say, somewhere to the left of Kevin Costner's -- they are not merely dancing, but clogging with wolves.

Set in 1937, the film begins rapturously enough in the high country, majestic mountain home to a 13-year-old Blackfoot girl (Michelle St. John) who is snatched from her village by a government agent and forcibly enrolled in a state-supported Anglican school ruled by a craven lot who cane, mock and/or sexually abuse their pupils, claiming it is "God's work." They might be the progeny of Dr. Mengele and the fine nuns who ran the show in "The Handmaid's Tale."

There's only one compelling reason to see this fictional history so clumsily directed by Bruce Pittman from Keith Ross Leckie's purple screenplay. And that is St. John's moving portrayal of Komi, whom the Anglicans rename Amelia as soon as they delouse her and cut off her long hair. Forcibly removed from her family and culture, Amelia is even forbidden to speak her language. "No talking gobbledygook," says one of the school's many hardened sourpusses, whose punishments only strengthen Amelia's resolve to hold on to her heritage.

And we haven't even mentioned (well, what the heck) the lurking lesbian (Chapelle Jaffe) who sees the girls' dorm as her own private harem. Or the elderly cripple who whacks toddlers with his cane. Or that the teachers eat beef and the kids get beans. The moral is that absolute power corrupts whether wielded by Anglican educators 54 years ago or by self-righteous filmmakers today.

"Where the Spirit Lives" is unrated but equivalent to a PG.