Atom Egoyan

Novelist Russell Banks and Canadian Film Director Atom Egoyan discuss their new film “The Sweet Hereafter”. The film is adapted from Banks’ 1991 novel. It’s the story of how a small town deals with a tragic school bus crash. Banks has written 12 novels which include: “Affliction,” “Rule of the Bone,” “Searching for Survivors,” “The Book of Jamaica,” and “Continental Drift.” Egoyan is best known for “Exotica” a film that won the International Critics Prize for Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival.

Egoyan's newest movie won the International Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival at the 1994 awards. Exotica is considered his breakthrough movie. Andrew Sarris of the New York Observer says when the movie ended, "I sat stunned in the theater...Exotica [was] high on my ten best list."