Canadian Cinema

Directed by Zacharias Kunuk.
172 minutes; released 2001.
Atanarjuat, a young Inuit hunter, wins the affections of the beautiful Atuat, depsite her having been promised to the camp leader's son, Oki. The jealous Oki ambushes Atanarjuat and his brother in their sleep, killing the latter while Atanarjuat runs for his life across miles of arctic ice. Winner of the 22nd Genie Award for Best Motion Picture, the Camera d'Or at Cannes, and Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival. In Inuktitut with English subtitles.

Directed by Sarah Polley.
100 minutes; released 2006.
A married couple's happiness is interrupted by the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Based on Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Came over the Mountain". Starring Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent and Olympia Dukakis. Winner of 28th Genie Award for Best Motion Picture.

Directed by Bruce Beresford.
101 minutes; released 1991.
A French Jesuit priest is sent to the Canadian wilderness in the seventeenth century. Based on the novel by Brian Moore. Starring Lothaire Bluteau.

Directed by Eric Canuel.
116 minutes; released 2006.
When an English-speaking cop from Toronto gets partnered with a French-speaking cop from Quebec to solve a crime, they must resolve their personal differences before they threaten the investigation. Starring Patrick Huard and Colm Feore. In English and French with English or French subtitles.

Directed by Eric Till.
90 minutes; released 2000.
This film dramatizes the last years of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran minister who spoke out against Hitler, participated in the German resistance, and paid for his convictions when the Nazis hanged him in 1945. Starring Ulrich Tukur, Johanna Klante, Robert Joy and R.H. Thomson. See also the documentaries: Hanged on a Twisted Cross and Bonhoeffer.

Directed by John N. Smith.
186 minutes; released 1992.
Dramatization of the scandal involving the sexual and physical abuse of boys at St. Vincent's Orphanage in Newfoundland. Co-Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, CBC, Telefilm Canada and Tele-Action.

Directed by Atom Egoyan.
85 minutes; released 1993.
When a self-absorbed photographer and his wife visit Armenia to take pictures of historical churches for a calendar, their relationship begins to fall apart. In Armenian and English with optional English subtitles. Starring Arsine Khanjian and Atom Egoyan.

Directed by Jack Gold.
80 minutes; released 1973.
A priest is sent from Rome to reform a traditional monastery in Ireland. Based on the novel by Brian Moore. Starring Martin Sheen and Michael Gambon.

Directed by Paul Haggis.
115 minutes; released 2004.
In a 36-hour timespan, a diverse group of characters crash into each other's lives. In 2006, this film won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Starring Karina Arroyave, Dato Bakhtadze, Sandra Bullock and Don Cheadle.

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée.
129 minutes; released 2005.
The fourth in a family of five boys shares his story of being different but trying desperately to be more like his brothers. This film won many prizes in 2005-2006, including 11 Genie Awards. In French with English subtitles. Starring Michel Côté and Marc-André Grondin.

Directed by Denys Arcand.
102 minutes; released 1986.
Eight academics, four men and four women, meet to have dinner together and end up discussing sex, their lives and, unwittingly, the society they live in.

Directed by John N. Smith.
180 minutes; released in 1993.
A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation dramatization of the events culminating in the Battle of Dieppe, August 19, 1942. Starring Gary Reineke, Victor Garber and Robert Joy.

Directed by Anthony Minghella.
162 minutes; released 1996.
A Canadian nurse during the Second World War cares for a wounded stranger with a mysterious past. Based on the novel by Michael Ondaatje. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas and Willem Dafoe.

Directed by Atom Egoyan.
103 minutes; released 1994.
The stories of a DJ, a lap-dancer, a nightclub proprietress and a pet-shop owner all unfold and converge around the Exotica nightclub, its customers and its employees. Starring Mia Kirshner, Arsine Khanjian and Bruce Greenwood.

Directed by Michael Powell.
123 minutes; released 1941.
A German submarine crew is stranded in Canada in 1941 and tries to cross the border into the still-neutral United States.

Directed by Donald Shebib.
98 minutes; released 1970.
Two young, uneducated Maritimers leave poverty in Nova Scotia for the opportunities of the Big City in Toronto. Starring Doug McGrath and Paul Bradley.

Directed by Volker Schlöndorff.
109 minutes; released 1990.
A woman fights against the tyranny of a totalitarian regime. In English with optional English, French or Spanish subtitles. Based on the novel by Margaret Atwood. Starring Natasha Richardson and Faye Dunaway.

Directed by Terrance Odette.
87 minutes; released 1999.
Two homeless men battle bitter cold, ruthless fellow human beings, and their difficulty in clinging to each other.

Directed by David Cronenberg.
95 minutes; released 2005.
When two criminals show up at his diner, the mild-mannered owner thwarts the robbery attempt and gets praised for standing up to crime. But all the media attention attracts the mob, who show up at his doorstep. Starring Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris and William Hurt.

Directed by Paul Haggis.
121 minutes; released 2007.
A soldier returns to the U.S. after his tour of duty in Iraq and quickly goes missing. His father enlists the help of a police officer and conducts his own investigation.

Directed by Denys Arcand.
119 minutes; released 1989.
When some Montreal actors put on an unorthodox Passion Play, they incite the opposition of the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, their lives begin to mirror the Passion itself. The earlier edition, PN1997 .J438 2002z, is in French only. The other comes with English or Spanish subtitles. Starring Lothaire Bluteau.

Directed by Christian Duguay.
180 minutes; released 1999.
A pious young woman unites the people of France against the English. Starring Leelee Sobieski, Shirley MacLaine and Peter O'Toole.

Directed by Patricia Rozema.
102 minutes; released 1999.
A young woman, Fanny Price, is sent to live at the country estate of her rich cousins to learn how to be a proper lady. Based on the novel by Jane Austen. Starring Embeth Davidtz, Jonny Lee Miller, Alessandro Nivola and Harold Pinter.

Directed by Claude Jutra.
104 minutes; released 1971.
An orphaned 14-year-old youth comes to live with his Aunt Cecile and Uncle Antoine in a 1940s Canadian mining village. Then on Christmas Day, he and his uncle--who is the village undertaker--are called out when they hear a boy has died.

Directed by David Cronenberg.
115 minutes; released 1991.
An exterminator and drug addict seeks to escape from his troubled existence in 1953 New York and flees to a hallucinatory version of Tangiers where reality and fantasy have merged. Compelled to make sense of this alien territory, he writes a book called "Naked lunch." Based on the novel by William S. Burroughs.

Directed by Robert J. Flaherty.
79 minutes; released 1922.
This silent film tells the story an Inuit family struggling to survive in Canada's inhospitable Hudson Bay region. It juxtaposes the frozen, Arctic surroundings with the warmth of the family's affection for one another. Starring Allakariallak as Nanook.

Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson.
101 minutes; released 2001.
Dave Purcell just woke up on the wrong side of life: his marriage is dead and his restaurant just went belly up. Things look pretty bad until his eccentric neighbour comes to the rescue.

Directed by George Bloomfield.
150 minutes; released 1979.
A dramatization of the Northwest Rebellion of 1885. Starring Christopher Plummer, William Shatner, Leslie Nielson, Raymond Cloutier and Arthur Hill.

Directed by Guy Maddin.
100 minutes; released 2003.
A depression-era beer baroness sponsors a contest to find the world's saddest tune. Starring Isabella Rossellini and Mark McKinney.

Directed by Terrance Odette.
110 minutes; released 2002.
A young Portuguese girl living in Toronto wants to be an angel in the annual summer church procession. Audio-track in English or French.

Directed by Bruce Pittman.
180 minutes; released 2003.
A dramatization of the explosion in the Halifax harbour on December 6, 1917.

Directed by Marc Evans.
102 minutes; released 2006.
When a hitch-hiker is killed in a car crash, the driver of the car finds and begins a friendship with the victim's mother. He also develops a relationship with her neighbour. Starring Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, and Carrie-Anne Moss.

Directed by Denys Arcand.
103 minutes; released 2000.
Follows the story of newfound supermodel Tina Menzhal as seen through the eyes of the hordes of television cameras who follow her every move as she catapults from ordinary small-town life to celebrity status.

Directed by François Truffaut.
98 minutes; released 1975.
A talented young French writer, desperately in love with her womanizing lover, travels to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to pursue him. Starring Isabelle Adjani and Bruce Robinson.

Directed by Jerry Ciccoritti.
192 minutes; released 2002.
Originally aired on CBC Television, Trudeau explores 15 years in the political and personal life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The film explores Trudeau's passionate commitment to individual rights as the cornerstone of democracy.

Directed by Tim Southam.
180 minutes; released 2005.
Trudeau II is a drama chronicling the coming of age of Canada's 15th Prime Minister. Importantly, the film shows how the conservatism of Quebec, and the autocratic premiership of Maurice Duplessis, shaped Trudeau into a man who helped begin the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.

Directed by David Cronenberg.
89 minutes; released 1983.
A cable TV executive discovers an underground TV show called Videodrome, a hyperviolent torture show. His quest to find the origin of the show may result in the loss of his sanity.