Tales from the Gimli Hospital

Guy Maddin's first film, from 1988, is set in the town of Gimli in Manitoba. As their mother lies dying in a modern hospital, two children are told a story by their Icelandic grandmother about the old Gimli: the lonely Einar, his friend Gunnar and a smallpox epidemic. The film imitates the aesthetics of silent and early sound cinema: extreme contrast in black and white, deliberately degraded audio, heightened performance. This is not a nostalgia exercise; Maddin fills the form with material that is strange and often uncomfortable. The history of the Icelandic immigrant community in Manitoba is the film's actual ground. Maddin tells that history as legend and never marks the difference between the real and the invented. It was made on an extremely low budget and became a cult title. Who it's for: those curious about experimental cinema and Guy Maddin's particular style. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a comprehensible story and clean technique; the film refuses both deliberately.