Fiona and Grant’s serene, almost forty years of coexistence falls apart when the aging but still attractive woman comes down with Alzheimer’s disease. The famous Canadian actress’s directorial debut is one of the most acclaimed movies of the 2006/2007 festival season. The legendary Julie Christie stars in one of the lead roles.
Sarah Polley, a Canadian actress notable not only for her talent but also her careful choice of roles, selected Alice Munro’s “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” for her feature film directorial debut. The story tells of a married couple whose nearly forty years of carefully built intimacy is disrupted by Alzheimer’s disease. Fiona’s and Grant’s quiet coexistence in a log cabin in the middle of a snowy countryside falls apart when the aging but still attractive woman suffering from increasing memory lapses willingly leaves for a medical institution. Day by day, the devastated Grant becomes a passive observer of the new reality and estrangement that suddenly closes in on the love of his life. The 28-year-old director made this exceptionally mature film without sentimental ostentation and with understandable emphasis on the acting performances of Gordon Pinsent and the now legendary Julie Christie.
110 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Sarah Polley
/ Screenplay Sarah Polley, podle povídky Alice Munroové The Bear Came Over the Mountain / based on the short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain by Alice Munro
/ Dir. of Photography Luc Montpellier
/ Music Jonathan Goldsmith
/ Editor David Wharnsby
/ Producer Daniel Iron, Simone Urdl, Jennifer Weiss
/ Production The Film Farm, Foundry Films
/ Cast Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis, Michael Murphy, Kristen Thomson
/ Contact HanWay Films, Magic Box - division Bioscop
/ Distributor Magic Box - division Bioscop
Sarah Polley (b. 1979, Toronto) most noticeably drew attention as an actress with her role as Nicole in Atom Egoyan’s drama The Sweet Hereafter, for which she received Boston and Chicago Film Critics’ Awards. She has starred in films by Michael Winterbottom (The Claim), David Cronenberg (eXistenZ), and Hal Hartley (No Such Thing). Her role in the film My Life Without Me (shown at the KVIFF in 2003) won her a Genie, the Canadian national film prize, for best actress. In 2003 Polley personally presented the Czech premiere of Wim Wenders’ film Don’t Come Knocking at the KVIFF. Sarah Polley has been writing screenplays and making shorts (such as I Shout Love, which won the Genie award for best short film) since 1999. Away from Her is her feature film debut.
HanWay Films
8 Basing Street, W11 1ET, London
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 207 290 0750
E-mail: [email protected]
Magic Box - division Bioscop
Na Klikovce 7, 140 00, Praha 4
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 221 436 255
Fax: +420 221 436 305
E-mail: [email protected]
Thorsten Schumacher
Sales Agent
Andrea Metcalfe
Distributor
Irena Prokopová
Distributor
Robert Schaffer
Distributor
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