Directed by Matthew Rankin • 2019 • Canada
Starring Dan Beirne, Sarianne Cormier, Catherine St-Laurent

Canadian history is reimagined as a head-spinning hallucinogenic fantasia in this outrageously warped future cult classic from director Matthew Rankin. In Toronto in 1899, aspiring politician Mackenzie King (Dan Beirne) dreams of becoming the prime minister of Canada. But his romantic vacillation between a British soldier and a French nurse, exacerbated by a fetishistic obsession, may well bring about his downfall. In his quest for power, King must gratify the expectations of his imperious mother, the hawkish fantasies of a warmongering governor-general, and the utopian idealism of a Quebecois mystic before facing a final test of leadership. Inspired by the diary of one of Canada’s most famous politicians, THE TWENTIETH CENTURY melds the influences of German expressionism, studio-era Technicolor melodrama, and midnight-movie camp into a feverishly stylized biopic unlike any other.