The Sweet Hereafter
Canada
1997
112 Min
Color
2.35:1
English
Synopsis
A small community is torn apart by a tragic accident which kills most of the town’s children. A lawyer visits the victims’ parents in order to profit from the tragedy by stirring up the their anger and launching a class action suit against anyone they can blame. The community is paralyzed by its anger and cannot let go. All but one young girl, left in a wheelchair after the accident, who finds the courage to lead the way to the sweet hereafter. –IMDb
Director
Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan’s parents were painters and he studied International Relations and music at the University of Toronto where he began making short films: “Howard in Particular” 1979, “After Grad with Dad” 1980, “Peep Show” 1981 and “Open House” 1982.
While he has several distinguished Television and Opera works on his resume and such pictures as his debut “Next of Kin” 1984, Berlin and Moscow International Film Festival-winning “Family Viewing” 1987 and “The Adjuster” 1991 – his most critically acclaimed creation is The Sweet Hereafter (1997) and his most famous work is the astonishingly clever film-in-film Ararat (2002)
4 time Cannes Film Festival winner and the most famous Armenian filmmaker since Sergei Parajanov, the Egypt-born, Canada-bred, Oscar-nominated master of indie cinema, has collected an impressive 4 awards from the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival.
A 7 time recipient of Canada’s top Genie Awards, he is a remarkable figure in contemporary… read more
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Justin Oakey
31Mar13
One of the most elegant, beautiful, and devastatingly tragic Canadian films of all time. Atom Egoyan (quite frankly, a very overrated filmmaker) has crafted his finest work, a story following a tragedy in a small community in British Columbia. What makes this so haunting is how simple and authentic everything is - the performances enabling such realism. A meditation on family, community, grief, and virtue.
sandracine
12Oct12
Saw this recently. Sarah Polley is a standout. Love her rendition of The Tragically Hip's "Courage". Was the film pretentious? Does it have its "head up its ass"? I dunno. Some of the reviews/comments I read on this site are pretty snooty and condescending (& pretentious), I can't say I enjoyed it; the story was too upsetting to "enjoy", but it was well-done and it has stayed with me.
Adam Cook
28Sep11
Out of all the people I'm following, I am the only one who has given this a negative rating...Why?
Threske
26Jun11
Four star average, MUBI? Really? This film is so pretentiously far up its own ass in its efforts to seem profound, the old conventions of original character development and subplot exposition are glossed over in favor of the half-formed, nonsensical Pied Piper motif. Egoyan tries ever so hard to create a dreamlike atmosphere and Lynch-esque enigmatic plot- he just forgot the minor details of substance and meaning. ★★
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Maury Chaykin, 1949 - 2010
By David Hudson on July 26, 2010
"Award-winning actor Maury Chaykin, a familiar face in Canadian movies and TV shows since the 1970s, died Tuesday on his 61st birthday
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Untitled
By Andhika Eka Buana on February 7, 2010
with The Sweet Hereafter, Egoyan has created one piece of a potent and strong drama. the story, focusing on the effect of a tragic accident in a small community, is just enough to keep me interested… read review
Untitled
By jaredmobarak on June 7, 2009
spoilers
How much money is your child worth? Is that a question you could ever fathom yourself asking? Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter broaches the subject with devastating results… read review
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