Winner of three richly deserved awards at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, director Atom Egoyan's deeply moving and hypnotically shot film was never going to have people queueing around the block to see it. Its subject matter took care of that.

Set in the snowy vastness of British Columbia in Canada, the heart-tugging story centres on the residents of a tiny community in the wake of a school bus crash which claims 14 young lives.
Still reeling from the shock and consumed by grief, the mourning parents are visited by big city lawyer Ian Holm, who offers to represent the families in a class action lawsuit designed to find out who was responsible for the bus inexplicably careering off the road into a frozen lake and then sue for compensation.

Intricately switching back and forth in time-between the accident itself, the time before and the aftermath-the pieces slowly begin to fit together as Holm interviews not only the grieving relatives, but also survivors of the crash, including the bus driver and a crucial witness played by Sarah Polley.
Left crippled and confined to a wheelchair, Polley proves to be the central figure and the key to Holm building his case. A talented singer who eventually finds an escape from her own torment, she ultimately holds the key to the conscience of the whole community. Through her courage, the townspeople come to dwell in the "sweet hereafter," a realm reserved for those who are at peace with their fate.

Based on Russell Banks' celebrated novel, Egoyan's film is an absorbing and deeply emotional study of the human journey towards acceptance and grace and the interwoven paths of innocence and evil, light and dark, that lead us there.

More about the grief of surviving rather than the tragedy of dying, the Canadian director deserves considerable praise for adding a whole new dimension to the novel by introducing parallels with the poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin, an analogy which works to devastating effect. As he explains himself, the poem evokes "this idea of being led somewhere magical…a place which can on the one hand annihilate, but also bring cohesion and purpose."

Central to the whole film is Holm's character (the actor actually replaced Donald Sutherland at the last minute), who conducts his investigation while battling his own inner demons relating to his drug-addicted daughter. In trying to convince the parents that finding someone to blame is the answer to their pain, he is himself looking for a way to come to terms with his own torment.

Surrounded by a talented cast (Holm and Polley in particular are both remarkable), Egoyan has shaped a touching and compassionate movie which resonates with emotion. Renowned for his rigorous craftsmanship, his assured touch verges on the mesmerizing, while his decision to shoot in anamorphic cinemascope borders on genius, opening up a whole new dimension in terms of composition. It's a perfect showcase, not only for his distinctive, intimate style, but also the extraordinary locations.

A director who refuses to bow to cinematic convention (there's no sugary sweet happy ending here), Egoyan's haunting and deeply fulfilling movie may well lack any thunderous pacing and is inherently harrowing, but the fact that it still proves captivating speaks volumes about its exceptional quality.

David Lichtneker