Director: Sarah Polley
Duration: 108 mins
Country of Origin: Canada
★★★★★
“A joy. Polley has a gripping tale to tell: a portrait of a marriage that is full of enormous richness, tenderness and emotional complexity. Fascinating and poignant, it’s a great pleasure to watch.”
Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN
“Alternately playful and elegiac. Watching this loving brood gradually peeling back their non-nuclear roots is profoundly moving to witness.”
Guy Lodge, VARIETY
★★★★★
“In a word: Wow. Extraordinary in every way. One of the best films of the year.”
Peter Howell, TORONTO STAR
“Probing, emotionally devastating. A poignant experience… the full story shouldn’t be revealed… filmgoers deserve to experience the tale as Polley unfolds it. Audiences will tell and retell this touching story. Polley has transformed the secrets and lies of her own life into glowing artistic truth.”
Mary Corliss, TIME MAGAZINE
STORIES WE TELL unpeels the complex life of Diane, an aspiring actress and mother, and the shockwaves that a series of impulsive actions unleash on her children, husband and community.
With this groundbreaking new feature that seamlessly blends past and present, the real and the imagined, Polley’s characteristically unflinching yet compassionate gaze delivers a level of depth and emotion only hinted at by her acclaimed earlier directorial works, Away From Her and Take This Waltz.
Making STORIES WE TELL all the more memorable is the revelation that the mother depicted – and family in question – is Polley’s own.
Official Competition, 60th Sydney Film Festival (5-16 June)
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