FAR SIDE OF THE MOON (LA FACE CACHÉE DE LA LUNE) Special Screenings

Robert Lepage’s fifth film/and Canada’s official Oscar® selection for Best Foreign Language Film, started as a one-man show. It’s a pitch-perfect, quirky dramedy encompassing interplanetary travel and the more mundane difficulties of communication here on Earth.

Philippe is a perpetual dreamer academic, whose thesis implies that the space-race was primarily motivated by narcissism. He is shooting a video diary intending to send it into the cosmos to reach out to extraterrestrials. His older brother, Andre, is a more down-to-earth type, a gay weatherman content to live in his bourgeois neighborhood with his boyfriend. He’s not really interested in looking too deeply into life. They aren’t close, but, with the death of their mother, Philippe figures it’s as good a time as any to try and improve their relationship.

Lepage brilliantly portrays both brothers. With poetic use of special effects, a striking visual sensibility and a capacity for simple but real characterization, FAR SIDE OF THE MOON transports you into Lepage’s realm-and what a great place to be.