Winnipeg-born director Matthew Rankin has tried more than once to land a Heritage Minute.
But his pitches, including an 鈥渆xperimental dance film鈥� about disgraced Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson, were just too strange, he guesses, for Historica Canada to indulge.
So he鈥檚 brought his own version to the 44th Toronto International Film Festival this year with his feature film debut "," a warped take on a young William Lyon Mackenzie King.
鈥淚t鈥檚 one part Canadian Heritage Minute and one part ayahuasca death trip,鈥� he told CTNews.ca ahead of the festival, where the film has its world premiere Tuesday in the Midnight Madness program.
"The Twentieth Century," which stars 鈥淲orkin' Moms鈥� actor Dan Beirne as the future PM, is based on real people and incidents 鈥渇ed through a very surreal prism,鈥� said Rankin. Billed by TIFF as a 鈥淗eritage Minute from hell鈥� and a 鈥渂izarro biopic,鈥� it follows the early days of a young Mackenzie King through a series of humiliations as he hurtles toward top office.
The script is based on actual people and events and letters written between 1897 and 1902, when he was in his 20s. Some lines of dialogue are pulled directly from the original text. Otherwise events are 鈥渞eprocessed,鈥� said Rankin.
鈥淚 describe this movie as a nightmare that (Mackenzie King) might have had around 1899,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 spent a lot of time reading the diary. A lot of times I鈥檇 fall asleep while reading it. I鈥檇 wake up and I couldn鈥檛 remember exactly what I had dreamed or read. The script kind of emerged out of that.鈥�
In one surreal sequence, Mackenzie King competes in a leadership contest involving ribbon cutting, 鈥渆ndurance waiting,鈥� baby seal clubbing and urinating one鈥檚 name in the snow. Throughout the film, he struggles with a fetish for women鈥檚 footwear, which has an unsettling connection to a cactus.
The fetish is not fact. Instead, Rankin calls it a 鈥渢ransmogrification鈥� of details, based on 鈥渞epressed erotic feelings鈥� identified in the diaries where Mackenzie King wrote of sinning and committing horrible acts, said Rankin. Words are crossed out and pages were ripped from the book. The theory among many historians is that Mackenzie King , but that is unconfirmed. Rankin simply chose to go a different direction to fill in the blanks.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a question of ecstatic truth,鈥� he said. 鈥淗istorians draw that conclusion because it鈥檚 the most educated guess they could make. It does nonetheless remain a fiction and it remains an artistic operation. I am definitely riffing off of that. I am giving into the artistic workings of historical reconstruction.鈥�
Fact or fiction, Rankin鈥檚 film is an uncommonly surreal, darkly comic depiction of Canada. He knows his brand of patriotism is not in line with Canadian-focused media such as Heritage Minutes and "Anne of Green Gables." That鈥檚 the way he likes it.
鈥淭he way that we often represent Canada is this comforting reassuring, vanilla ice cream image,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is, in part, what the film is confronting.鈥�
