Come From Away, a musical, swept Broadway audiences away in a whirlwind of friendliness and laughter in 2017.
The tale of how the inhabitants of Gander, Newfoundland, banded together to aid 7,000 airline passengers stranded in the city on September 11, 2001, when 38 flights were diverted and landed there has since become an unexpected and rapid success.
Performances of the Tony Award-winning show resume on September 21. Still, if you can’t make it to New York, you’re in luck: On September 10, a filmed version will be made accessible on Apple TV+, permitting you to view the upbeat music from the comfort of your own home.
Come From Away was an encouragement. Here are 11 more Canadian films and entertainment content that provide a perspective into Canadian society, history, culture, and art.
The convenience of Kim (2016-21)
The Scene: Toronto
The narrative: This entertaining television series, which is based on a play by Ins Choi, concentrates on a Korean-Canadian family who owns and operates a convenience shop in Toronto’s Moss Park district.
The show has earned accolades from New York Times writer Priya Krishna for the groundbreaking manner it rationalizes Korean culture and cuisine, despite the structure and generational conflicts appearing as cozy and nostalgic as a ’70s sitcom.
This year, Simu Liu will appear in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and star as son Jung Kim in this show.
The Most Canadian Characteristic: This documentary introduces viewers to one of the immigrant communities in Toronto, which is generally considered the world’s most multicultural municipality.
Look It Up: The Netflix original Kim’s Convenience.
Atanarjuat, The Speedy Runner (2001)
The Predicament: Igloolik, Nunavut
The History: The first film ever produced in Inuktitut, one of Canada’s Inuit languages, is this three-hour extravaganza, which is based on an Inuit mythology that has been orally transmitted for generations.
In a close-knit society a thousand years ago, the film is about love, treachery, and retribution.
Beyond the juicy narrative details, however, it provides a chance to observe the creative methods by which these people survive in the brutal and inhospitable Arctic wilderness by foraging, fishing, hunting, making clothing, residing in igloos, and using sled dogs.
The movie won the Caméra d’Or for best first-feature picture at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Most Canadian Components: Atanarjuat was acclaimed as the greatest Canadian film of all time by critics and filmmakers at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015.
Download It: The Fast Runner is accessible for $3.99 on Apple TV.
Native Horse (2017)
The Scenario: White River and Toronto, Ontario
The Plotline: Hockey movies are ubiquitous in Canadian cinema (Goon, The Rocket, Les Boys, for example), but few had as much to say about larger themes as this 2017 drama, which highlighted the appalling injustices of the Indian residential school system.
It was employed to assimilate Indigenous children at government-run, church-operated boarding schools, with the last one closing in 1997.
It was run by Canada’s Department of Indian Affairs. The movie depicts the tale of Saul Indian Horse, a victim of the residential school system who eventually becomes a professional hockey player. It is based on a 2012 book by Ojibwe author Richard Wagamese.
The Most Canadian Qualities: Many Canadian schools are instructing the book and the movie as a part of the country’s endeavor to come to terms with this traumatic past.
Explore It: Indian Horse, a Netflix original
An E for Anne (2017-19)
The Atmosphere: Avonlea, Prince Edward Island, a made-up town
The Tale: The perennial children’s book Anne of Green Gables, written by Lucy Maud Montgomery in 1908, has spawned a century’s worth of adaptations, including TV episodes, films, radio shows, plays, musicals, and even a Japanese animated series.
This most recent acclimatization, which took home the Canadian Screen Award for best drama in 2017 and 2018, persists the tale of the chatty and imaginative orphan Anne Shirley, who an elderly brother and sister adopt in a small-town Prince Edward Island.
However, it isn’t afraid to address important issues like trauma, gender inequality, and the pressure to accommodate it.
The Most Canadian Qualities: The Tragically Hip, the best-selling Canadian band from 1996 to 2016, delivers the theme song, according to Nielsen Music Canada.
Explore It: on Netflix, find Anne With an E.
Slingshots and Axes (2003-06)
The Opening sequence: The crafted community of New Burbage
The Saga: This aspirational dramedy series was co-created by Mark McKinney (62), Susan Coyne (63), and comedian Bob Martin. It is based on the real-life Stratford Festival in Ontario, which has been running successfully since 1953. (58).
Shakespeare’s themes occasionally bleed into the personal lives of the festival’s cast and crew as each of the show’s three seasons chronicles the production of a different Shakespearean play, spanning Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear.
What Is Most Canadian: The cast functioned as a training pitch for emerging Hollywood stars, such as Rachel McAdams, who was nominated for an Oscar for Spotlight, and Luke Kirby, who won an Emmy for his portrayal of Lenny Bruce in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Examine It: Acorn TV, Sundance Now, or AMC+ monthly subscriptions are required to stream Slings and Arrows on Amazon Prime. These services cost $5.99, $6.99, and $8.99.
Seven days (2008)
The Incident: From Toronto to Vancouver Island, the Canadian wilderness is all around you.
The narrative: When stage-four cancer is diagnosed in elementary school, teacher Ben Tyler (played by The Affair actor Joshua Jackson), decides to get a motorcycle and set out on the open road after witnessing the words “Go West Young Man” printed on a Tim Hortons coffee cup.
The lead singer of The Tragically Hip, Gord Downie, who tragically passed away from glioblastoma in 2017, is depicted as a guy who has overcome his battle with cancer.
He is encountered along the road by a cast of optimistic people about life. Tyler goes horseback riding in a small Saskatchewan town, goes hiking in Banff National Park, and goes humpback whale surfing in the Pacific.
Most Canadian Ingredient: There are only Canadian musicians and bands on the soundtrack.
Watch It: One Week, available on Amazon Prime Video
Slatt’s Creek (2015-20)
The Opening sequence: Schitt’s Creek is an imagined community.
The Message: Before the 2020 Emmys, you presumably hadn’t heard of this cult-turned-mainstream show, but now you probably have: By sweeping every comedy category, it established a record.
Johnny and Moira Rose, played by Catherine O’Hara (67) and Eugene Levy (74), lose their family’s fortune and are forced to live in a motel in Schitt’s Creek, a little town that Johnny had acquired as a joke present in the 1990s.
Their pampered adult children David (Eugene Levy’s son; Dan Levy, co-creator of the program) and Alexis are also traveling with them (Annie Murphy).
Most Canadian Characteristic: SCTV, Canada’s equivalent of Saturday Night Live, provided the launch platform for practically every beloved Canadian comic, including John Candy, Rick Moranis 68, and Andrea Martin. Levy and O’Hara initially collaborated there 74
View It: Netflix offers Schitt’s Creek.
On the Prairie: Little Mosque (2007-12)
The Film begins: The made-up community of Mercy, Saskatchewan
The Plotline: Do you consider yourself an expert on the prairie provinces? They might not be as uniform as you first thought!
The sitcom spans six seasons and follows Amaar Rashid, an imam who administers a mosque located in the middle of Saskatchewan. The rented parish hall from an Anglican church serves as the site for the mosque.
Expect a variety of cultural clashes, including those between progressive and conservative Muslims, Christians and Muslims, and immigrants and residents of the area, as well as transplants from the major city. However, the themes are always explored in a caring and compassionate manner.
Most Canadian Portion: According to a 2019 Gallup poll, Canada is the country that is most hospitable to immigrants, including those who live in the small hamlet featured in the show.
Read It: Stream Little Mosque on the Prairie on Amazon Prime Video and IMDb
The Grand Instigation (2013)
The Opening sequence: Tickle Head, a crafted community in Newfoundland and Labrador
The Saga: This English remake of a 2003 French film with a rural Quebec setting shifts the action to a modest fishing town in Newfoundland where everyone is on welfare, and there aren’t many jobs.
There is a criterion that must be met before a petrochemical corporation will consider developing a factory near Tickle Head: a local physician. Fisherman Murray French (Brendan Gleeson, 66), who is unemployed, devises a strategy for the 120 locals to use to “seduce” Dr. Paul Lewis (Friday Night Lights actor Taylor Kitsch), a big-city plastic surgeon, into staying put.
Most Canadian Aspect: Irishman Gleeson voiced concern about acquiring the Newfoundland accent, but he was lucky because the dialect is extraordinarily distinctive and highly influenced by the British Isles.
Examine It: Amazon Prime Video has The Grand Seduction available.
Antoine, my uncle (1971)
The Drama: They did make a community of Black Hawk, Quebec
The Tale: This touching and realistic story follow one Young person’s journey maturing during Christmas time in the 1940s, set in a small town in Quebec that mines asbestos. Critics say this is the leading Canadian film ever made.
The family that owns and operates the general store and funeral home in the village is at the center of much of the story. Still, it also alludes to the substantial political upheaval that was about to occur in provincial politics during the 1949 Asbestos Strike and the subsequent Quiet Revolution.
What Is Most Canadian: There are multiple references to the ongoing hostilities between French- and English-speaking people, such as when the local teenagers pelt the English-speaking mine owners with snowballs.
Explore It: On the Criterion Channel, watch Mon Oncle Antoine.
Maudie (2016)
The Atmosphere: Marshalltown, Nova Scotia
The Saga: Sally Hawkins, a two-time Oscar contender, represents the Nova Scotia folk musician Maud Lewis (1903–1970) in this biopic that was jointly produced by Ireland and Canada (The Shape of Water).
Maud, who has rheumatoid arthritis, accepts a position as Everett Lewis’ (Ethan Hawke, 50) housekeeper and relocates to his 10-by-12-foot cottage. She starts painting beautiful flowers and birds on the walls to lighten up the space, and soon she becomes an unusual art hero, getting the moniker “the Grandma Moses of Canada.”
Most Canadian Portion: Maud is very beloved throughout the Maritime provinces of Canada, and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax currently houses her refurbished cottage.
Explore It: On Starz and Amazon Prime Video, Maudie
Conclusion:
The films and TV shows above provide a snapshot of the many aspects of Canadian culture.
Whether an Irishman struggling to fit in with a Newfoundland accent or a biopic about Nova Scotia folk musician Maud Lewis, these stories explore the themes and issues unique to Canada.
If you’re looking for something interesting to watch that will give you a better understanding of Canadian life and culture, we recommend checking out any of the titles on this list.