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Atom Egoyan's Teenage Son Provides Impetus For Latest Film, 'Adorati

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  • Atom Egoyan's Teenage Son Provides Impetus For Latest Film, 'Adorati

    ATOM EGOYAN'S TEENAGE SON PROVIDES IMPETUS FOR LATEST FILM, 'ADORATION'

    The Canadian Press
    Sept 9 2008
    TORONTO

    TORONTO -- Acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan says watching his
    14-year-old son grow up in the age of the Internet was a big impetus
    for his latest feature "Adoration," about a student who tells a lie
    that spins out of control online.

    "I think a lot of the film was born out of this idea of our son
    reaching a point - and then reflecting back on who I was at that age,"
    Egoyan said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival,
    where the thought-provoking drama is screening.

    "Certainly at that age, that's when I got really involved in high
    school drama and I began to be consumed by making up these narratives
    ... If I was that kid now? With the Internet, it would be irresistible
    to kind of not use that medium."

    "Adoration," written, directed and produced by Egoyan, stars Devon
    Bostick as a Toronto teen named Simon who is encouraged by his French
    teacher (Arsinee Khanjian, Egoyan's wife) to read a terrorism news
    story to his class and pretend that he is a key part of it.

    The story Simon tells in the film is inspired by a real-life 1986
    headline about a Jordanian man who put a bomb in the luggage of
    his pregnant Irish girlfriend before she attempted to board an El
    Al flight.

    In the film, Simon pretends that he was the unborn child.

    "That story, when it first came out ... it was the first time I
    realized that a terrorist could abstract another human being to that
    extent, especially a loved one who's carrying his own child," said
    Egoyan, who is of Armenian descent and was born in Cairo but raised
    in Victoria, B.C., and Toronto.

    Students who hear of Simon's alleged past, not knowing it isn't real,
    go home to tell their parents and soon the entire community is engaged
    in heated discussions in online webcam chat rooms about the tale.

    The ensuing firestorm of deceit forces Simon to reconcile his
    feelings about the death of his parents, played in flashbacks by
    Rachel Blanchard and Noam Jenkins.

    Interwoven throughout the film are the struggles of Simon's uncle,
    deftly played by Scott Speedman, as well as issues of racism, cultural
    ignorance, intolerance, humanizing terrorist figures and how technology
    affects the way we communicate.

    "I used to think 20 years ago when I made these films dealing with
    satellite communications that we would lose our sense of humanity and
    that we would kind of distance ourselves from each other, but in fact
    that's not really true," said Toronto-based Egoyan, who touched on
    some of the same themes two decades ago with the film "Speaking Parts."

    "In fact, it's saturated us with a degree of intimacy we could have
    never imagined."

    Arshile, Egoyan's son, is a bit younger than Simon, who is part of
    a generation where texting, digital cameras and cellphones are near
    necessities, said the director.

    To learn how teens are using Internet communication, Egoyan held
    workshops with Toronto high school students and said "it was shocking
    how immediate and easy it was for them to create these personas"
    online.

    "It's not so schizophrenic to have these different personalities for
    them," said Egoyan, who earned Oscar nominations for directing and
    writing the screenplay for 1997's "The Sweet Hereafter."

    "Adoration" earned Egoyan the Ecumenical Jury Prize, which honours
    directing, at the Cannes Film Festival in May, an honour that brought
    tears to his eyes.

    "I was pretty emotional," said Egoyan.

    "It's difficult for people to understand how overwhelming that
    event is. I've been there so many times but each time it's just,
    it's so overwhelming, it's like there's so much work to do and you're
    exposing your film to the entire world ... So when you get a prize
    like that, especially when it's worded so beautifully and it completely
    understands your film ... I just felt really stirred by that."

    "Adoration" is to be released in theatres in February.
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