THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS

One could imagine a Hollywood version of The Company of Strangers, in which the cast would include several well-known stars, most of whom would not be old themselves, and in which there would undoubtedly be a male characteracting as a catalyst for the action. The women would have to overcome life-threatening situations and one of them would certainly die. Cynthia Scott's film, however, takes a different, more contemplative approach to the trials and tribulations of old age.

Eight women, average age 73, find themselves stranded in the Quebec countryside when their bus breaks down, leaving them with some roasted frog, to sustain them. As it turns out, that's plenty. Academy Award winner Cynthia Scott's first feature film is probably one of the most remarkable movies produced in Canada this year - a naturalistic, partly improvised drama that accumulates a tremendous emotional force simply by exploring the interaction of these wildly different women.

Scott held on to her goal of not making a film "about old people, but about people who were old", and that determination pays off in the wonderful performances she has elicited from her actors, all performing on the big screen for the first time. The group includes an initially shy mohawk woman, a free thinker, a nun with a talent for auto repairs, a literary lesbian, a blues-singing bus driver, and an absolutely delightful woman from Dorset named Cissie. it's Cissie who gives the film some of its best moments.

Scott's method of using her non-professional actors' life experiences as dramatic material draws on the rich resonant histories of women who saw this century's social changes affect them in small but very significant ways, Scott opens up this territory to a whole new range of possibilities.