The Assignment

Obie (Erica Marks) is second-in-command in the Vigils, an established secret organization at Trinity High School. A professor enlists the Vigils' help, wishing to use their influence to convince students to sell overpriced, fundraiser chocolates. When new student Jerry Renault (Garrett Hnatiuk) refuses to participate, Obie attempts to persuade him to sell the chocolates. The two begin a secret romance, though he continues his defiance. As Obie witnesses the Vigils escalate their aggressive tactics towards Jerry, she is forced to examine her involvement with the organization that once protected her but now seems ready to destroy everyone she cares about. 

This undergraduate student project from Winnipeg, Canada came about thanks to funding from the University of Manitoba and Canadian private investors, and director Cam Peters has taken this modest charter to produce a work that far exceeds the requirements of his own assignment. Based on Robert Cormier's 1974 young adult novel, The Chocolate War, this film is dark, brutal and realistic; as the filmmakers make clear in the (parental discretion advised) Featurette, The Assignment is an allegorical tale about power structures and how people cope with them. 

Check out the trailer here (parental discretion advised): The Assignment Trailer