Canadian films about existentialism

In the near future, as humanity prepares to set foot on Mars, Jacob Obus, an elderly musician, takes pride in slowing down time by playing instruments inspired by women's bodies, designed by his friend Arthur. A love triangle develops when Jacob and Arthur both fall in love with Avril, a young photographer. Enter Eugène Spaak, Arthur's father, an inventor and cosmologist who unveils a new theory about man's desire to reach Mars and helps Jacob find the true meaning of life and love.

Fishing for direction in life, Elizabeth gets the opportunity of showing her dog in a fancy New York dog show. The judge, Donovan Darcy, comes across as aristocratic and rude, and a chain of misunderstandings unfold during the competition, complicating their attraction to one another.

A man coping with the institutionalization of his wife because of Alzheimer's disease faces an epiphany when she transfers her affections to another man, a wheel chair-bound mute who also is a patient at the nursing home.

Hector is a quirky psychiatrist who has become increasingly tired of his humdrum life. As he tells his girlfriend, Clara, he feels like a fraud: he hasn’t really tasted life, and yet he’s offering advice to patients who are just not getting any happier. So Hector decides to break out of his deluded and routine driven life. Armed with buckets of courage and child-like curiosity, he embarks on a global quest in hopes of uncovering the elusive secret formula for true happiness. And so begins a larger than life adventure with riotously funny results.

A once-celebrated kid detective, now 31, continues to solve the same trivial mysteries between hangovers and bouts of self-pity. Until a naive client brings him his first 'adult' case, to find out who brutally murdered her boyfriend.

The line between reality and fiction starts to blur when two best friends start making a movie about getting revenge on bullies.

Gangster and deadbeat dad, Ulysses Pick, embarks on an unusual journey through his home.

A scientist discovers the bodies of three frozen genetically modified Russians buried in the Canadian North. Upon thawing them out he realizes he has unleashed a deadly threat to Western society and must stop them at all costs.

Joseph and his family live in the remote wilderness as fur trappers but their tranquility starts to be threatened when they think are being hunted by the return of a rogue wolf and Joseph leaves them behind to track it.

Celebrated European actor Sophie Bernard is in Montreal shooting a movie, and she's taking the opportunity to visit her gay son Thomas in the hope of bridging the rift that's grown between them. But Thomas has his own agenda for their time together; he intends to finally get some answers as to the identity of his father. Meanwhile, at Ville-Marie Hospital, paramedic Pierre struggles with PTSD, and though he has support in Marie, a nurse who keeps the overflowing emergency room running, it's uncertain whether he'll remain able to cope with the high intensity of his work. Each of these four characters is dealing with emotional damage — and on one dark Montreal night, their lives will all intersect in a fateful occurrence at Ville-Marie.

A peculiar neighbor offers hope to a recent widow who is struggling to raise a teenager who is unpredictable and, sometimes, violent.

A mild-mannered college professor discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man's private affairs.

Three young Inuits set off in search of a promised land to save their clan from starvation.

The story of an impossible love between a woman named Fred and a transgender woman named Laurence who reveals her inner desire to become her true self: a woman.

A stubborn idealist spies a bride on her way to her wedding and immediately falls in love with her.

Set in the small town of Devil's Gate, North Dakota, the film examines the disappearance of a local woman and her young son. Schull plays an FBI agent who helps the local sheriff search for answers. Partnering with a deputy , they track down the missing woman's husband and find that nothing is as it seems.

Two old friends living in a dystopic future become trapped in a mysterious time loop — one that may have something to do with an ongoing battle between an omnipotent corporation and a ragtag band of rebels.

Elizabeth Thatcher, a cultured young teacher in 1910, fears leaving her comfortable world in the city. But when she accepts a teaching position in a frontier town, she finds new purpose and love with a handsome Royal Canadian Mountie.

After the disappearance of a young scientist on a business trip, his son and wife struggle to cope, only to make a bizarre discovery years later - one that may bring him home.

During a harsh Montréal winter, an elementary-school class is left reeling after its teacher commits suicide. Bachir Lazhar, a charismatic Algerian immigrant, steps in as the substitute teacher for the classroom of traumatized children. All the while, he must keep his personal life tucked away: the fact that he is seeking political refuge in Québec – and that he, like the children, has suffered an appalling loss.

With their father in prison for murder, siblings Alison and Brandon are instantly considered suspects when a string of killings plagues their town, and they must fight to clear their names.

Clara and Nikolai meet at a sweat-soaked rave and end their night at his apartment. The first part of the film is an erotic and candid portrait of their lovemaking. When Clara tries to sneak out without saying goodbye, this typical hookup takes an unexpected turn...

Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis falls in love with a fishmonger while working for him as a live-in housekeeper.

Gabrielle is a young woman with Williams syndrome who has a contagious joie de vivre and an exceptional musical gift. Since she met her boyfriend Martin, at the recreation centre where they are choir members, they have been inseparable. However, because they are "different," their loved ones are fearful of their relationship. As the choir prepare for an important music festival, Gabrielle does everything she can to gain her independence. As determined as she is, Gabrielle must still confront other people's prejudices as well as her own limitations in the hope of experiencing a love far from the "ordinary".

Maryse and her husband are desperate to sell a backhoe sitting abandoned in their suburban yard. Her brother, Benoit, is trapped in endless adolescence, sharing their childhood home with their invalid father. Benoit is enamoured with a single mom named Nathalie, and he's hoping to finally grow up by living with her... but Nathalie's son does not approve. A serious accident at the factory where Maryse works, a strange series of coincidences, and the arrival of a Man claiming to come from the future launch Maryse and Benoit on a life-changing road trip. Following up his acclaimed feature film Continental, a film without guns, filmmaker Stephane Lafleur once again brings us an ensemble of compelling characters, in a story where the ordinary and the fantastic collide

Ex-pro hockey player Matt Shade irrevocably changes his life when he teams up with fierce P.I. Angie Everett to form an unlikely investigative powerhouse.

Former SWAT leader David Hendrix and hard-partying movie star Brody Walker must cut their ride-along short when a police training facility is attacked by a team of mercenaries.

Based on a real WWII vet and family man turned bank robber. Disillusioned by his post war circumstances, Eddie Boyd is torn between the need to provide for his young family and an unfulfilled dream to head to Hollywood to become a star. He discovers a way to do both, robbing banks Hollywood style, but his dream leads him down a path of danger and tragedy.

A strange and destructive relationship develops between a chef and her neighbor, a former child actress.

Two brothers return to a small mountain town in search of their long lost parents only to discover that the place has a monstrous taste for tourists.

An elderly couple fight against local authorities in rural New Brunswick to build their final home.

Two friends' tour of Europe takes a dark turn when one of them contracts a mysterious illness. They race to find out what it is and how to cure it before the sickness consumes him completely.

Eight years after the disappearance of Cassandra, some disturbing incidents seem to indicate that she's still alive. Police, parents and Cassandra herself, will try to unravel the mystery of her disappearance.

Mercenaries with nothing to lose are hired to rescue a bioengineer imprisoned in a cold war bunker. Upon entering the ominous facility, they find themselves in a fight for their lives when they come under attack from an unknown and deadly creature.

The journey of a professional wrestler who becomes a small town pastor and moonlights as a masked vigilante fighting injustice. While facing crises at home and at the church, the Pastor must evade the police and somehow reconcile his violent secret identity with his calling as a pastor.

After hearing a child screaming for help from the green depths of a vast field of tall grass, Becky, a pregnant woman, and Cal, her brother, park their car near a mysterious abandoned church and recklessly enter the field, discovering that they are not alone and because of some reason they are unable of escaping a completely inextricable vegetable labyrinth.

The estranged daughter (Lauren Lee Smith) of a recently deceased filmmaker gains a new understanding of her father when she offers to create a retrospective of his work.

As we follow a mother and her son, we delve into a past marred by an accident that tears them apart. She will become a renowned artist and healer, and he will grow into his own and a peculiar falconer who bears the marks of a double absence. In the present, a young journalist will bring about an encounter between the two that puts the very meaning of life and art into question, so that we may contemplate the possibility of living life to its fullest, despite the uncertainties littering our paths.

When two friends open a Halloween fun house on Devil's Night it is all fun and games until their former sorority sisters begin to arrive. These six sisters are confronted by their past as the night spins out of control.

Husband and wife, Will and Dawn, are in financial crisis after learning the job Will was counting on to salvage their financial future has disappeared in the midst of a market collapse. They set out to drive home on the winter highway back to their city, and in a moment of altruism, pick up siblings Lee and Cheryl, a pair of hitchhikers on their way to start a new life. In the midst of the night they nearly collide with an old man wandering on the snowy highway, hyperthermic and horrifically frostbitten. While searching for his ID they discover a wad of cash, a hand drawn map with GPS coordinates, and a single gold coin inside his coat. Will and Dawn reluctantly go along with Lee’s plan to report him to the police as a John Doe and pocket the money. In an attempt to save their financial struggles, all four venture off into the snowy wilderness in search of the buried gold.

This is a film about a troubled teen, Sean Randall, who is falsely accused of planning a Columbine shooting scenario. It all begins when an unlikely bond forms between Sean (Connor Jessup) and a preppy teenage girl named Deanna Roy (Alexia Fast). Deanna's boyfriend is deeply threatened by Sean and Deanna's friendship, resulting in a violent confrontation. Seeking to protect himself, Sean issues a death threat online - and is swiftly arrested. When the police raid Sean's home, they find rifles, shotguns, knives and ammunition - all property of Sean's father Ricky (Michael Buie), an avid hunter. They also find a supposed "hit list" with twenty names of people who have tormented Sean. The authorities and the media proclaim another Columbine has been narrowly averted, and soon Sean faces a terrifying imprisonment in a youth detention facility. Sean's only hope is to overcome his dark image, and prove his innocence to Deanna and to his community.

Detective John Cardinal attempts to uncover the mystery of what happened to the missing 13-year-old girl whose body is discovered in the shaft-head of an abandoned mine. At the same time, he comes under investigation by his new partner, Lise Delorme, a tough investigator in her own right.

In forgotten towns along the American border, a young mother drifts from one motel to the next with her intoxicating boyfriend and her 8-year-old son. The makeshift family scrapes by, living one hustle at a time, until the discovery of a mobile home community offers an alternative life.

A female police officer has to keep a prisoner from escaping a nearly abandoned hospital unit at the same time his violent partners come looking for him.

Dr. Mary Harris, a single mother and emergency doctor by day, also moonlights as an underground angel of death - helping terminally ill patients who want to die and slip away on their own terms. So far Mary has managed to stay under the radar; but business is booming, and her double life is getting complicated. When her world starts to unravel, Mary realizes she's going to have to fight dirty if she's going to stay in the killing game.

Twenty-eight-year-old Margot is happily married to Lou, a good-natured cookbook author. But when Margot meets Daniel, a handsome artist who lives across the street, their mutual attraction is undeniable.

A small town-teen predicts his friend’s death with startling accuracy and is labelled the “Prophet of Death.” One thing he didn’t see coming? Falling in love - with his best friend’s girl.

An inventive crime thriller told backwards -- reversing day by day through a week -- following a local sheriff's quest to unlock the mystery of three small town criminals and a bank heist gone wrong.

A couple of college students decide to sign up for pharmaceutical testing of a new allergy drug to make some extra cash for their spring break trip. They quickly discover their two week stay will not be as easy as they first believed and fight to save themselves from the grips of the facility.

A spectacular sled race through the village. Frankie-Four-Eyes and his team, including Sophie as the driver, take on the newcomers: the mysterious and conceited Zac and his athletic cousin Charlie.