Drawn home for the first time in a long time by his father’s birthday, Sam (Elliot Page) finds himself aboard a train out of Toronto hurtling towards a family he hasn’t faced since transitioning four years earlier. Onboard, he makes a chance encounter with an old friend, Katherine (Hillary Baack), and sparks instant chemistry, bringing long dormant feelings to the surface. At home, Sam is welcomed in as a brother and son, but unspoken tensions lace every interaction, as Sam struggles to navigate his family’s clumsy reaction to his transition, and long-festering tensions threaten to sever their relationship.
In his first feature film role since 2017, Elliot Page delivers a powerful and nuanced performance that effortlessly navigates the tumultuous emotional journey of Sam’s visit home. Director Dominic Savage (The Escape) uses improvisation to craft exquisite, small, conversational scenes between family members that renders them with remarkable depth and clarity. The film is an incisive family drama, a rich character study, and proof that Elliot Page is a generational talent.
Community Partner
Elliot Page, Hillary Baack
Canada/UK
2023
Showcase
English
Gender or Sexual Discrimination
At The Park
At The Rio
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Anita Gou, Sam Intili, Nia Vazirani, Matt Jordan Smith, Andrew Frank, Francine Maisler
Producer
Krishnendu Majumdar, Richard Yee, Daniel Bekerman, Chris Yurkovich, Dominic Savage, Elliot Page
Screenwriter
Dominic Savage
Cinematography
Catherine Lutes
Editor
David Charap
Production Design
Joseph Kabbach
Original Music
Dominic Savage, Oliver Coates
Director
Dominic Savage
Dominic Savage is a BAFTA-winning filmmaker with a prolific list of TV credits. Dominic created, wrote and directed three seasons of the award-winning anthology drama series, I Am. Each film has been developed in collaboration with one of Britain’s leading female actors: Season one starred Samantha Morton, Vicky McClure, and Gemma Chan. The second series starred Suranne Jones, Letitia Wright and Lesley Manville. Most recently, Season 3 opened with a feature length film I Am Ruth starring Kate Winslet. It won two BAFTAs (Single Drama and Lead Actress) as well as a Royal Television Society award for Lead Actress.
Filmography: When I Was 12 (2001); Love + Hate (2005); The Escape (2017)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Graduate
In The Graduate Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman, 30 playing 20 with masterly understatement) comes home from college and is surprised to be seduced by the wife of his father's business partner, Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft).
blur: To the End
Now in their late 50s, Britpopsters blur (of Song 2 fame) do a celebratory lap of Great Britain culminating in their first ever Wembley Stadium show in this appealing observational doc. A companion piece to the concert film Live at Wembley Stadium.
Midnight Cowboy
Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are street hustlers on different ends of the innocence / experience spectrum who establish something more than a business partnership in the seedy world of late 60s New York City in John Schlesinger's New Hollywood classic.
Sinners
This year's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.
The Headless Woman
The pictures tell the story -- and you better not blink -- when Veronica (the superb Maria Onetto) hits something on the road home. But what? She is too traumatized, or panic-stricken, to go back and look, and her fears are too terrible to acknowledge.