ANNE WHEELER
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBBB.
Canada, 1995. Atlantis Films, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Troika Films. Screenplay by Sharon Gibbon. Cinematography by Rene Ohashi. Produced by Valerie Gray, Gary Harvey. Music by George Blondheim. Production Design by John Blackie. Costume Design by Beverley Wowchuk. Film Editing by Lenka Svab. Toronto International Film Festival 1995.
Touching film that examines the effect that the internment camps, instituted by the Canadian government during World War II for Japanese-Canadians, have on a group of citizens. One particular family is the focus of the action as they enter a town where a white family has to decide how it feels about running its business under changed circumstances. Humorously, it’s the rural whites who think they have something to teach the urban ‘foreigners’ in Anne Wheeler’s intelligent examination of racism, a film as thought-provoking as it is dramatically enjoyable, not to mention historically educational.
