Bronwyn Henry
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 19/99) - Planning on tuning in to this weekend's Academy Awards to see who's at the top of the American movie biz? After getting your fill of sequined gowns, glamour and glitz on the small screen -- why not come out to see some of what Canada has to offer on the big screen?

The Far North Film Festival is presenting the best in Canadian film at the Capitol Theatre on March 26, 27 and 28. In addition to the apocalyptic comedy, Last Night, and the French drama, Un 32 aout sur Terre, the festival is also showing The Red Violin and Regeneration -- two of Canada's best films of 1998.

Francois Girard's sumptuous The Red Violin is truly a film-goers feast. An epic saga of love and music, the story winds through five countries and 300 years.

The Red Violin begins in Italy with an artisan struggling to create the perfect violin. The audience is then taken on a enchanting journey through time, guided by the violin in the hands of various owners. The magical instrument passes through the hands of musicians in Italy, Vienna, London and Shanghai. The joys and pains of its ownership are intertwined with the conflicts and triumphs of the accompanying time period. Magnificently filmed, The Red Violin features Samuel L. Jackson, Greta Scacchi and Colm Feore in extraordinarily powerful performances.

Winner of eight 1998 Genie Awards, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography, The Red Violin will screen twice, on Saturday, March 27 and Sunday, March 28 at 9 pm.

Regeneration joins the list of superbly crafted war films and easily holds its own in comparison to Saving Private Ryan and the Thin Red Line. The film takes a look at the horrors of the First World War and the effects they had on the men who endured them. Like Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, the film is a frank look at the human cost of war. Adapted from a novel by Pat Barker, Regeneration takes place within the walls of a Scottish hospital for those whose war wounds are to the mind and spirit, not the body. This completely engaging story centres around four men: a poet and war hero, a neophyte writer, a shell-shocked officer Billy Prior (Jonny Lee Miller of Afterglow and Trainspotting), and the doctor who treats them, William Rivers (Jonathan Pryce of Brazil, Carrington, and Ronin).

As the doctor tries to heal them, he faces a heart-rending dilemma -- taking away enough of the soldiers' madness to return them to the lunacy of the trenches. Regeneration plays on Saturday, March 27 at 7 p.m.

All screenings are $7.50. Tickets are available at the Birchwood Gallery. Tickets and information will be available at the Far North Film Festival tent at Caribou Carnival.