Strangers on
the home front

Canadian-made films are

often viewed

as foreign

by distributors in Canada

ACK IN the early ‘80s when Diplomatic immunity
was still in its fetal stages, veteran documentary
faa film-writer Steve Lucas and director Sturla Gun-
narsson didn’t think twice about telling their story of war-
torn El Salvador frorn a Canadian perspective.

Director Casta-Gavras had ai-

- ready illuminated the U.S. in-
volvement in Latin America in the
movie Missing. Besides, neither

_ film-maker felt they had the
authority to speak from an Ameti-
can viewpoint.

Diplomatic Immunity, Lucas and
Gunnarsson’s first attempt at mak-

_ing a theatrical feature film, is

about a Canadian diplomat, Kim
Dades (played by Wendel

- Meldrum), who flies to El Salvador
to straighten out a Canadian aid
project that is being used as a mili-
tary brothel instead of housing
refugees. ;

Dades, through whose eyes we
see events unfold, quickly comes
up against U.S. officials who prop
up the Salvadorean government

*-and its death squads. As a charac-

~ ter, she is insufferably passive and
spends almost the entire film trying
to avoid taking a stand.

. As Gunnarsson says, Dades’ at-
titude ‘drives people crazy.’’ But
her character, he says, functions as
an allegory for Canada: she com-
promises and attempts to to strike
a deal — the Canadian way of do-

_ ing things.

* ‘We really felt obligated to try
and tell the story from a Canadian
point of view,’’ says North Shore
native Lucas, over the phone from
his Toronto home.

“When you see the film, you

‘face the question of what does it
mean to be Canadian in this situa-
tion? Does the typically Canadian
nice-guy approach to dealing
with the world still work, or has
the world passed us by?’’

The Canadian film industry
seems to have passed Lucas and
Gunnarsson by.

By insisting on Canadian con-
tent, the producers have in-
advertently shot themselves in the
foot.

. According to the realpolitik of
the film industry, Canadian films
are viewed as “‘foreign” by

Evelyn Jacob
SPOTLIGHT FEATURE

American distributors, even in
Canada.

Despite receiving a Genie
Award nomination and winning
the title of second most popular
Canadian film at this year’s Van-
couver Film Festival, Lucas and
Gunnarsson haven't been able to
get their film on the screen for
longer than two weeks at a time.

. (Diplomatic immunity opened

Dec. 6 at Royal Centre Cinemas).

Anyone thinking of seeing the |
film shouldn't delay, he says,
because Cineplex Odeon could
pull it even before the end of the-
two-week run.

Lucas, whose 1981 documentary
After the Axe won an Oscar
nomination, says the lack of sup-
port is due to “‘an historical:
pickle’ the Canadian film industry
currently finds itself in.

“We haven't done the job that
Canadian music has done.
Everyone knows Sarah McLachlan,
the Crash Test Dummies — theyre
world-class,” he says.

“In that sense the Canadian
music industry has kind of arrived.
Similiarily, Canadian literature has
overcome major hurdles. But Ca-
nadian movies are not getting
support at home — with the ex-
ception of Black Robe — even
though they are abroad.”

Diplomatic Immunity cost $2.7

See Production page 31

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