Canadian films about the poor

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

A headstrong young girl in Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban, disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family.

In a small Arctic town struggling with the highest suicide rate in North America, a group of Inuit students' lives are transformed when they are introduced to the sport of lacrosse.

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 young girl is abducted by a man, who claims that a cult is hunting her. His goal is to protect her until sunrise but while restrained, the young girl falls deathly ill. While her friends and family search for her, the source of her illness becomes more and more apparent. She’s not sick…she’s changing.

Ten years ago, Kate Collins (Ashley Jones) was a different person. Literally. She was living in Chicago, working as a bartender, and going by her real name ‘Stephanie Wickers.’ That all changed when she witnessed the murder of her boss by a ruthless member of an up and coming crime syndicate named Alek Ravik (Al Sapienza). Knowing that Klebanov saw her, she faked her death, changed her name, and went into hiding in Philadelphia. When a crooked cop retires and young, eager Detective Miesen (Alain Chanoine) is chosen to head a new task force to tackle crime syndicates in Chicago, the unsolved murder case is reopened. Miesen believes that Kate/Stephanie is still alive and begins to look for her. Unfortunately, so does Alek.

A group of archaeologists uncover a strange structure in Northern Canada, dating over ten thousand years before the present. The team finds themselves isolated when their communication systems fail and it's not long before they begin to feel the effects of the solitude.

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.

Nat Turner, a former slave in America, leads a liberation movement in 1831 to free African-Americans in Virgina that results in a violent retaliation from whites.

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.

When his best friend and podcast co-host goes missing in the backwoods of Canada, a young guy joins forces with his friend's girlfriend to search for him.

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

A once-famous painter rediscovers inspiration when he befriends a sleepwalking cannibal.

Making the most of the family home while her parents are away, 22-year-old Nicole is enjoying a peaceful summer with her best friend Véronique. But when Nicole’s older brother shows up with his band to record an album, the girls’ friendship is put to the test.

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...

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.

Anticipating a disaster, Antoine, a father, attends a survivalist training given by Alain in his autonomous hideout. In fear of a natural, economic or social crisis, the group trains to face the different possible apocalyptic scenarios. But the disaster they will experience will not be the one they predicted.

A disgruntled teenager, sent to do community service at a rundown Karate school, enters an MMA tournament to face the man who killed his parents.

When Charlie Harris ends up in a coma, he leaves the Hope-Zion Hospital in chaos - and his fiancée and fellow surgeon, Alex Reid, in a state of shock. As the staff of Hope-Zion races to save lives, comatose Dr. Harris wanders the halls of Hope-Zee in "spirit" form, not sure if he's a ghost or a figment of his own imagination.

The Captains is a feature length documentary film written and directed by William Shatner. The film follows Shatner as he interviews the other actors whom have portrayed Starship captains within the illustrious science-fiction franchise.

In the year 2159, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Rhodes (Jodie Foster), a hard line government official, will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium. That doesn’t stop the people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max (Matt Damon) is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a daunting mission that, if successful, will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds.

A rebellious teenager forced to repeat her last year of high school is caught between adolescence and adulthood - and between two very different male admirers.

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.

A sewage worker gets trapped inside a septic tank during a water contamination crisis and undergoes a hideous transformation. To escape, he must team up with a docile Giant and confront the murdering madman known as Lord Auch.

The Joke Thief takes us on a journey of one man's last hurrah. Simon McCabe is a stand up comedian who has been making people laugh for 35 years. All his life he has been the life of the party, but now he is tired, miserable and almost washed up since he's never got a lucky break due to a reputation of joke stealing. One faithful night, his longtime friend and fellow comedian convinces a comedy club owner to give Simon some stage time and one last shot at redemption. On the ride down to his gig, Simon takes us on a whirlwind journey of his life, as he replays back special moments in an emotional series of flash backs that made him the sad, funny man that he is today.

Summer war games between the neighborhood kids turns deadly serious when jealousy and betrayal enter the mix, in this alternately hilarious and horrifying black comedy that mixes equal parts Lord of the Flies and Roald Dahl.

Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.

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 ex-con finds his plan to go straight foiled by a loan shark who manipulates his target into taking on one last heist.

A college student suspects that a nurse may harm her lonely, widowed mother.

Set in 1879 Paris. An orphan girl dreams of becoming a ballerina and flees her rural Brittany for Paris, where she passes for someone else and accedes to the position of pupil at the Grand Opera house.

Lizzie Richfield is at a crossroads when she lands a job as house manager for the exquisite Ashford Estate in the Virginia countryside. While planning one final Christmas Eve gala for the Marley family, Lizzie finds herself drawn to Robert—even as Kip pursues her.

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.

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.

In Lincoln City, some inhabitants have extraordinary abilities. Most live below the poverty line, under the close surveillance of a heavily militarized police force. Connor, a construction worker with powers, involves with a criminal gang to help his ailing mother. (Based on the short film “Code 8,” 2016.)

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

Fed up with being censored in their post-Trailer Park Boys lives, the out of work stars/world-renowned 'swearists', Mike Smith, Robb Wells and John Paul Tremblay decide to start their own uncensored network on the internet.

Matthieu, a 33 year old Parisian who finds out that the father he never knew has died and decides to go to his funeral in order to meet his two siblings in Quebec. But once in Montréal, he realizes that nobody is aware of his existence or even interested in it. He is alone, in hostile territory…Filled with secrets, this story about one man’s coming to term with the foreign family he never knew he had is complex with interconnected themes such as masculinity, family, paternity and filial devotion coiling in the layers underneath.

The story of August Pullman – a boy with facial differences – who enters fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.

The action-packed feature film tells the dramatic tale of two siblings and their Alaskan Malamute, who must make an emergency landing when their small plane has engine problems. They find themselves in a beautiful but potentially dangerous natural environment that they must overcome together.

In the harsh, wintry woods of rural Quebec, Bruce (Thomas Haden Church), a down-on-his-luck snowplow operator, accidentally kills a man during a drunken night joyride. Stricken with panic, he hides the body and takes to the deep wilderness in hopes of outrunning both the authorities and his own conscience. But as both begin to close in, Bruce falls apart mentally and morally and mysteries unravel to reveal who he was before the accident, the truth behind his victim, and the circumstances that brought them together in a single moment.

Cocky young attorney Michael Gray finds himself framed for murder when an inmate he is defending violently kills himself during their interview at South River State Penitentiary. Now locked in the same nightmarish Cell 213 where his client died, he soon realizes that unnatural forces are behind a string of inmate suicides, making matters of guilt and innocence not as cut and dry as they seem.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Newlyweds Sarah and Cory Morgan have decided to take a relaxing holiday with Cory’s 7 year old son Liam to try and smooth over some of the teething problems Liam is having with his new Mom. Despite the idyllic location of Cory’s isolated and luxurious country house, the family soon realize they have made a mistake in going there. Someone has been using the house in their absence. Their unwanted house guests will soon reveal themselves and the family will find itself caught up in a fight for their lives. What was planned as a relaxing getaway quickly turns into their worst nightmare as the family find themselves on a holiday from hell.

A young married woman from Montreal's Orthodox Jewish community finds freedom from the strictures of her faith through her relationship with a young man who is mourning the death of his estranged father.

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

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.