The film

Toronto, 1899. William Lyon Mackenzie King wants to become the Prime Minister of Canada, encouraged by his bedridden, controlling mother. His vain ambitions won’t be easy to achieve. As an ideological war rages on between a belligerent governor and a peace-loving mystic from Québec, Mackenzie must find his way into the 20^th century, overcome a romantic dilemma and face up to his secret fetishism for women’s shoes. The salvation of Canada lies in his disappointment.

A marvellous prowess of design and creativity, THE TWENTIETH CENTURY is an original mix between the expressionism of THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI and the colourful, bizarre world of Michel Gondry. Rankin affectionately pokes fun at the stereotype of the discreet and polite Canadian, who he places in front of awe-inspiring sets. For all its visual spectacle, this tragicomic tale is also hilarious, sometimes deliciously gory, and even politically relevant when parodying fascist iconography. A future cult classic!

The director

Born in Winnipeg, Matthew Rankin studied the history of Québec before setting his sights on filmmaking. After about 30 shorts (many of them animated), he is moving on to feature films with THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. His previous works have been shown at Cannes, Sundance, and Rotterdam, and have won awards at South by Southwest, TIFF and Annecy. Incidentally, one of his shorts had for a time been banned in Winnipeg for “attacking the dignity of the provinces”.

Selected filmography

2006 – OU EST MAURICE? (short)
2008 – CATTLE CALL (short)
2008 – HYDRO-LÉVESQUE (short)
2011 – TABULA RASA (short)
2014 – MYNARSKI: DEATH PLUMMET (short)
2017 – TESLA: WORLD LIGHT (short)