Program Note
An aspiring young politician dreams of becoming the Prime Minister of Canada and passes through numerous rigorous obstacles including his imperious mother, the war-mongering politicians and the utopian idealism of Québec, culminating in an epic battle between good and evil, along with ultimate survival in the 20th century.
In his feature-debut The Twentieth Century, Matthew Rankin employs Monty Pythonesque absurdities to unfold the bizarre tale of William Lyon Mackenzie King, an early 20th century prime minister of Canada, and his self-construction. Such process consists of peculiar challenges, including eating butter and killing baby seals with a bat. These actions may seem confusing, especially with the director using analog photography (super-8 and super-16 films) and expressionistic sets per Fritz Lang's Metropolis. This is an atypical film rearranging both the film and political history and creating something completely new in the process. (Jongsuk Thomas NAM).