Special Presentations

Written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming, Window Horses is a feature animation about love— love of family, poetry, history, culture.

Rosie Ming is a young Canadian poet who loves ‘all things Paris’. Her love for Paris and French culture is manifested in her self-published poetry book. Rosie’s book gets noticed and she is invited to perform at a poetry festival in Shiraz, Iran.

All her life, Rosi has lived at home with her over-protective Chinese grandparents and has never been anywhere on her own. Once in Iran, she finds herself in the company of poets and Persians who tell her stories about poetry, and stories about her Iranian father whom she assumed had abandoned her. The history of poetry is essential to Rosie’s story. In many respects, poetry allows Rosie to find her own voice.

What makes the film outstanding is its style of animation. At times, it is reminiscent of some of Picasso’s paintings. Not overly ornate but lovely to look at. More than a dozen animators worked on the film with Fleming. The music also complements the storytelling quite well.

The film is surely about love but it also deals with uniting cultures. Rosie has to reconcile with that part of herself she has yet to get to know. Her Iranian heritage. It is also about generational divides, and how to deal with family dynamics. There are plenty of life lessons throughout the film. Fleming gives us a very rich story in Window Horses.

Screens
Sun Sept 11, 2pm at Isabel Bader Theatre
Tues Sept 13, 4:45pm at Scotiabank Theatre Cinema 3