Directed by Ryszard Bugajski
100 minutes
In English

Some call this Canadian thriller by Polish director Ryszard Bugajski a supernatural film, others claim it's a 'folk-horror' flick... but if it is a horror film, then it's an unusual one... with a deep social message. It's based on a novel called A Dream Like Mine by M. T. Kelly, and tells the story of a Toronto lawyer who is caught in a moral dilemma when he meets an indigenous activist. The activist wants to kidnap the boss of a local logging company that is responsible for massacring his native land through deforestation. The result isn't dogmatic, but a haunting, spectral film. In the 1980s director Ryszard Bugajski made one of the most nerve-wracking movies ever made about the injustices of the Polish Communist regime (The Interrogation). Here he redirects his fury at the ravages of capitalism and the vast destruction to both nature and human life caused by greed and profit. The story that unfolds is harrowing, uncompromising and thought-provoking.

Director Bugajski is an old-school craftsman, and wields his cinema like a sharpened knife. His use of visuals, mood and storytelling are absolutely riveting. Here he has created a righteously hard-hitting film that's on the right side of history, yet it comes from a very unusual angle... it even has a deep supernatural edge. It is a movie about many things—environmentalism, colonialism, the power of big business, the rights of indigenous communities—but its primary theme explores the complex dilemma of pacifism versus violence. And of course it's ironic that it's a European who had to make this damning statement about the treatment of indigenous people in Canada. North Americans have a guilty conscience about their role in the genocide of native communities, and won't even get near such a hot subject. Besides delivering an eerie flick with an otherworldly/ghostly edge, it also features a fantastic cast of actors—Graham Greene, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Ron Lea, and Michael Hogan. What can I say? It's an incredible trip that you won't forget.

This will be a high-definition screening.