Snow Cake - A Movie Taking Place In Northern Ontario

While on the topic of Canadian films...

This Movie Is Broken is an urban film, showing events that take place in the Canadian metropolis of Toronto.

Downtown Toronto.

Downtown Toronto.

Front street in Toronto.

Downtown Montreal.

Ottawa at dawn.

Downtown Vancouver, beyond English bay.

But even though most Canadians (about 80% according to Statistics Canada) live in cities like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and others, Canada is a large country with many rural spaces.

The Saint-Lawrence river, near the village of Kamouraska, Québec.

A farm, somewhere in southern Québec.

A covered bridge, near Gatineau in western Québec.

An old farmhouse and tractor, near Sudbury, Ontario.

Farmland near Sudbury, Ontario.

Homes by the Vale-Inco smelter, in Sudbury, Ontario.

The western prairie, in Manitoba.

The Qu'Appelle river valley, in Saskatchewan.

The western prairie, in Alberta.

The film Snow Cake, released in 2006, provides an interesting look at life in Canada's less populated regions.  Filmed in Wawa, Ontario, a picturesque town located just north of lake Superior, it is a drama about a man named Alex who picks up a young hitch-hiker as he is driving across northern Ontario to Winnipeg.  Shortly thereafter, the pair are involved in a traffic accident, and the hitch-hiker dies.  Having himself lost his own son in a car accident, Alex decides to visit the hitch-hiker's mother, Linda.  When he meets Linda, he realizes that she is autistic.  So, he decides to stay in town for a few days, until Linda's daughter's funeral.  During this time, Alex encounters many of the residents of the small northern Ontario town that is Linda's home, and he comes to terms with some dramatic events that happened in the early part of his life.

Snow Cake is a heartwarming and touching film.  I have watched it a few times, and each time, it has made me nostalgic for home.  It contains beautiful scenery of northern Ontario in the winter, and the characters in the film have personality traits and idiosyncrasies that remind me of people I know well back home.  And furthermore, its soundtrack has been produced by Broken Social Scene.

The original Wawa goose, in Wawa Ontario.

The main street in Wawa.

The Trans-Canada highway, near Wawa.

Trucks on the highway, near Wawa.

Snow Cake has both a long trailer and a short trailer.

브로큰 러브송 - This Movie Is Broken at the 국도 예술관

A Canadian film is showing at the 국도 예술관!

This Movie Is Broken, released in Canada in June 2010, is a great film!  It portrays events that occur over the course of one day, leading up to a concert by one of Canada's best rock bands, Broken Social Scene.  The film has now been given Korean subtitles, and released in Korea under the name Broken Love Song, or 브로큰 러브송.

This Movie Is Broken is like two movies in one.  First of all, it is a romantic drama.  It begins with Bruno waking up beside Caroline, a woman he's been attracted to for a long time.  He's happy to have spent the night with her, and would like to have a long-term relationship with her, but she's on her way out of Canada to study the next day.  So, in order to make a lasting impression on her, Bruno tries to get tickets to take her to a Broken Social Scene show, a concert being held in Toronto that same night.  The story of Bruno's efforts to impress Caroline constitutes the first component of the film.

Secondly, This Movie Is Broken is a concert film.  A significant part of the movie takes place by the Toronto water front, on the shore of lake Ontario, during a live Broken Social Scene show that took place there in 2009.  Broken Social Scene is a unique band.  Perhaps more appropriately designated a rock collective, its' membership is constantly changing.  Two musicians, Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, have been part of the band since its founding.  But they, as well as most of the other musicians that make up the band, have on-going musical projects as members of other bands in addition to Broken Social Scene.  Perhaps the greatest strength of this talented group of musicians is their ability to put on a great live performance, and so the concert footage in This Movie Is Broken is excellent.  Plus, this live concert footage is interestingly intermixed with the narrative of Bruno and Caroline's story.

I appreciated This Movie Is Broken because it portrays events that happen in Toronto, a city that is dear to my heart, and because it features excellent music.  For a preview of the movie, its theatrical trailer can be seen here or here.  And here is a video of Broken Social Scene performing a song called Superconnected.