The Films of Atom Egoyan

Abstract

INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS IN THE FILMS OF ATOM EGOYAN The majority of Atom Egoyan's films are set in contemporary Canada, a country regarded as one of the most civilised in the industrialised world, famous for its affluence, good working conditions, relative social equality and excellent standard of social welfare. ‘Egoyan's Canada' conforms to this picture, as his characters usually enjoy a comfortable and economically secure existence. In spite of comfort and affluence, they rarely give the impression of being happy. On the contrary, they seem to be unfulfilled, emotionally constrained, as well as suffering other problems associated with the dark side of the ‘postmodern condition'.(1) The purpose of this article is to discuss their situation as an illustration and critique of this condition. Institutions in private livesOne of the features of their lives is domination by institutions, which dictionaries define as ‘organisations or establishments, founded for specific purposes'....