Bigger Than Life Presents: Exotica & Intro
Presented by Bigger Than Life with pre-recorded introduction from director Atom
Egoyan, and in-person introduction from Jason Wood (British Film Institute).
A lush psychodrama from visionary Canadian director Atom Egoyan, Exotica is one of
the defining films of nineties independent cinema. Set against the backdrop of the titular
exotic dance club and the illicit trade of endangered animals, this strangely sad puzzle-
box thriller slowly unfurls with the hidden histories and tangled relationships of its cast of
lost and tormented souls.
Among them, the club's pregnant owner and a troubled emcee, a smuggler of rare bird
eggs, a tax-auditor grieving his lost family, and a young dancer with a secret
connection. Egoyan toys with the conventions of the erotic thriller, but his intentions are
more cerebral, as he presents Exotica as a jungle-themed, neon-drenched refuge from
the pains of the outside world.
Screening alongside Red Rooms as part of ‘From Toronto to Montreal: A Mini-Season
of Canadian Independent Cinema.
Jason Wood is Executive Director Public Programme and Audiences UK at the British
Film Institute and previously worked as Artistic Director: Film at HOME. Jason also
contributed an essay to the Criterion Collection release of Exotica, and is co-director of
the documentary Formulas for Seduction: The Cinema of Atom Egoyan.
All of our screenings are 18+ unless otherwise stated, and the film start time is as advertised above.
- Runtime: 104 minutes
- Director: Atom Egoyan
- Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Elias Koteas, Don McKellar
- Country: Canada
- Year: 1994
