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Directed by Paul Schrader (Hardcore, American Gigolo, First Reformed), Oh, Canada tells the story of a respected documentary filmmaker seeking redemption for a life and career that was built on myths and deceit during one of America’s darkest hours.

Ailing filmmaker Leonard Fife (Richard Gere) wants to tell his life story, unfiltered, before it’s too late. As the director of lauded documentary exposés, he has much to be proud of, but his reputed avoidance of the Vietnam War draft and his past relationships harbour thorny truths. When Leonard sits for a filmed interview, with his wife Emma (Uma Thurman) present, his unruly stories about his younger self (Jacob Elordi) unleash revelations about the man behind the myth.

Adapted from the book Foregone by quintessential American novelist Russell Banks, Oh, Canada is a vital meditation on mortality that grapples with the personal and political decisions that faced many Americans in the fraught 1960s and remain resonant in new forms today.

Oh, Canada is on UK and Ireland digital platforms 12 January 2026.
Transcript
00:00I
00:04Forget why I agreed to do this
00:07Tell me why I agreed to do this
00:10This documentary will record your progress from your arrival in Canada as a draft refugee through your career as a filmmaker
00:16Where's my wife?
00:21I'm here, Leo. I want to tell everything for the record. I know Moses Todd anyway. You don't know any of it
00:26Okay, let's begin lights, please
00:33Leonard five December 22 2023
00:38The story begins the night of March 30th
00:421968
00:46I can hear him. You're her. She'll be a girl
00:52Ben tells me you're going north tomorrow
00:55I was on my way to decide my future
00:59I never returned to Virginia
01:01I met Amy in a bar in st. Petersburg, and I met Amanda
01:07By the time I was 22
01:11I'd already been married father to child gotten divorced
01:15My head ruins my life
01:21I'm waiting for everything to just kind of fall into place
01:30He's mixing things together memories films fantasies other people's stories
01:34You're talking about me like I'm not in the room
01:36I can hear you
01:37Come on. Let's just keep going. Can we do that?
01:39You're confused?
01:41Stay away from me
01:46You were a hero
01:47You stood against war
01:48Stop. That's enough. Stop this now
01:57When you have no future
02:02All you have left is your past
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