Cody Lightning’s ‘Hey Viktor!’ Meta Filmmaking Indie Comedy Trailer

Cody Lightning’s ‘Hey Viktor!’ Meta Filmmaking Indie Comedy Trailer

by Alex Billington
June 19, 2025
Source: YouTube

“I keep risking everything, and I end up with nothing…” Monument Releasing has debuted a up-to-date trailer for the film Hey Viktor!, a meta comedy about filmmaking made by Cody Lightning. This premiered a few years ago at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, and already opened up in Canada last year, finally getting a US release this year. This is kinda like a Kevin Smith movie but made by Natives. 25 long years after his time in the limelight, former child actor Cody Lightning tries to revive his life with a self-produced sequel to Smoke Signals (1998). Cody Lightning played Little Viktor in 1998’s Sundance hit Smoke Signals, and this is a comedy about him also trying to figure out what his life means after that. He’s forced to move home to his reserve in northern Alberta. When he learns his wife and kids are leaving him for a younger, more successful actor, he decides it’s time to make his masterpiece — writing, directing, & starring in Smoke Signals 2: Still Smoking, but with a documentary crew following his every misguided step. Also featuring Hannah Cheesman, Simon Baker, Adam Beach, Gary Farmer, Irene Bedard, and Colin Mochrie. Well this looks like good fun though I’m surprised it didn’t play at Sundance like Smoke Signals did many years ago.

Here’s the official trailer (+ two posters) for Cody Lightning’s film Hey Viktor!, direct from YouTube:

It’s been 25 years since all eyes were on the Cree kid from Edmonton who made it large with a starring role in the indie hit Smoke Signals. Now grown up, former child actor Cody Lightning is deep in the bottle & down on his luck, basking in past glories via faded VHS and endlessly rewriting zombie-priest scripts with inventive partner Kate (Hannah Cheesman). When friends stage an intervention, Cody seizes the moment — and a camera crew — for one last shot at producing Smoke Signals 2. With backing from a psycho investor and in warm pursuit of Adam Beach’s wig to tie the film together, Lightning’s deliriously dysfunctional set becomes a mess of unresolved tension and self-destruction, leading to a long-overdue reckoning with the community that raised him. Hey Viktor! is directed by the Canadian actor / filmmaker Cody Lightning, making his directorial debut with this film. The screenplay is written by Cody Lightning and Samuel Miller. Produced by Samuel Miller, Blackhorse Lowe, Joshua Jackson, Kyle Thomas, Sara Corry, Blake McWilliam. This initially premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival a few years ago. Monument will debut Lightning’s Hey Viktor! film in select US theaters starting on July 13th, 2025. For more info, head to their official site.

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