Rumours
by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson
Canada, Germany | 2024 | 108 mins | Fiction
Sunday 17 | Everyman Theatre | 19:30
In this exhilarating dark comedy, the seven leaders of the world’s richest liberal democracies meet at their annual G7 summit, hosted by the German chancellor. They soon become spectacles of incompetence, contending with increasingly surreal obstacles as night falls in the misty woods and they realise they are alone. Is the end near? And if it is, could it be Canada’s chance to prove itself as a leading nation? Its prime minister (a very funny Roy Dupuis) is certainly given all due attention by fellow citizen Evan Johnson, who wrote this daring satire and co-directed it with brother Galen Johnson and free spirit hero Guy Maddin.
It is a testament to the creative trio’s sagacity that every spectator whose nationality is represented in Rumours seems to leave it with the feeling that they were faithfully represented by their fictional leader. Indeed, despite the French president being reliably full of himself (Denis Ménochet is immense) and Cate Blanchett’s hilarious turn in Merkel-like pink blazer and smooth bob-cut, the portraits never give in to gross caricature. Imagination may take the filmmakers into wild territories, but always on the grounds of a sharp understanding of global geopolitics and subtle cultural differences. All hail Canada!
Courtesy of Universal
This Gala screening will include the presentation of the CIFF Lookout and Audience Awards.
