Last weekend, director Philip Faldo’s stealth visit to Toronto attended two warmly received afternoon screenings of his worldwide registered “Lovely Day” for the acclaimed Canadian director of 2012 Oscar-nominated “Monsieur Lazare.”
Thanks to Faldo’s sore throat and the rapidly fading voice, all media interviews have been cancelled and conversations with Variety have been saved. Meanwhile, he revealed that he was approaching cancelling the production with his new film last fall.
Montreal Writer (screenwriter co-writer) Alan Fara’s 2021 autobiography novel “Mil Secret Mildangers,” a comedy family drama on the Montreal set, follows Alan (Neil Elias). (Rose Marie Perot) The city’s scenic Pinnacle Mount Royal in the historic city of St. Joseph.
“I arrived on set in the morning and the Lebanese cast members have long faces because they are not sleeping,” Faldo said in his first interview about the film. “They were calling their Lebanese relatives and trying to figure out who was still alive and who had to move. And I ask them to film a stupid wedding scene? That was wrong.”
However, Lebanon-based Hiam Abou Chedid played Alain’s mother and told Falardeau the film was exactly what she and other Lebanese cast members needed. “She said, “We need to feel life is moving forward. Our lives are always political, so we need to be involved in something that is not political.”
“They all said they wanted to be involved in the art that doesn’t deal with war in the Middle East to show the world that war doesn’t define them.”
A few days before his flight to Montreal, Lebanese actor Georges Habbaz was the star of Amia Faqhar Eldin’s 2025 Berlin competition film, Yunan, who was playing theatre in Beirut when Faraldeau called.
“I said, ‘George, what happens when the airport closes?’ And he said, ‘I’m going to take the boat to Cyprus and I’m going to take the plane from there.” He was very calm,” Faldo said.
“I felt strongly that I should do a politically enthusiastic film rather than this comedy about anxiety, but they were relieved that I should continue.”
The film is produced by Kim McCraw and Luc Déry of Montreal Micro_scope. Their company’s new international division holds global rights outside of Canada. Anick Poirier, a well-known sales executive at Seville and Sphere International, sells major companies. Les Films Opale and Entract conspire in Canada.
“This is an important film for us and we want to see the reaction from Toronto,” Delhi told Variety before the festival.
Faldau may have an answer. The director, known for working closely with the community when telling immigrant stories such as “Lazhar,” “The Good Lie,” and other films, said it took Quebec for a while to have real diversity in film and television, but it’s happening now.
“We need to start casting actors in all sorts of roles, former girlfriends who are directors of the bank,” he said. “The woman on screening this afternoon said that although she was born in Canada, her parents were immigrants from Italy, she felt like she was watching an Italian film about marriage.
“That’s why I think we hit a nail in our heads with this story about second generation immigration, even when people in our community are trying to recognize themselves.”
