In Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada, adapted from Russell Banks’ Foregone, a renowned documentary filmmaker named Leonard Fife subjects himself to a filmed interview while battling the throes of death. This final interview, to be captured by a former pupil turned documentarian in his own right, is supposed to be a fawning retrospective tribute to a noble life. Instead, Fife takes the confessional aspect of a spotlit interview as an opportunity to alleviate himself of an imposter’s guilt before the watchful eye of the all-seeing lens, and perhaps even more significantly, his wife Emma. The film is the second collaboration between writer/director Paul Schrader and author Russell Banks, following the acclaimed Affliction in 1997, and it’s a project that both writers nursed through sickness and health….
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