Secret Nation

of the Canadian film industry.

I saw SECRET NATION on a late night slot on C.B.C.- Channel 9 out of Windsor. Suffering a peculiar interest in Newfoundland and Labrador, I was instantly captivated by the locale and the historical premise of this low-key "conspiracy" film, the kind of tale that makes one say, "By jove, something like that could have happened."

Casting is good. The heroine is not a Julia Roberts or Farah Fawcett clone; the other characters are most believable, and the bloke who plays Joey Smallwood is creepy he looks so realistic. The Grand Old Man died in 1991 or '2, and I am not sure if his passing was the inspiration for SECRET NATION, or whether story was based on an earlier work (which seems reasonable).

Canadian film is well worth catching for its own sake, even for gringos who might be a bit foggy on the geography and history of the Peaceable Kingdom. One need know nothing of Newfoundland in the 1940s to appreciate this political who-done-it.

An interesting take on the little understood - in the rest of Canada at least - shenanigans surrounding the decision of the independent country of Newfoundland to join the Confederation of Canada. I was surprised by the quality of the acting by former members of CODCO and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. I wasn't expecting their dramatic chops to be so finely honed.

The decision to frame historically-grounded facts in a dramatic work of fiction, with the added suspense of a thriller, is brilliant. If more producers chose this approach I think we would find it much more palatable to learn more of our history, which is all too often portrayed in stultifying soporific fact-fests.

All in all, a well-made and enjoyable effort that won't waste your time.

Saw it, loved it. The archival footage of Cashin and the National Convention was wonderful. Gee, you'd almost think that our Confederation was a scam. We all know that it was voted on........twice...We apparently got it wrong the first time! Strange that we weren't yet part of Canada until 1949, but no Newfoundland money was minted for 1948 or 1949. If you study Newfoundland history or if you loved This Hour Has 22 Minutes, see this movie you'll love it.

I saw Secret Nation on a late-night cable network broadcast and was immediately struck that this was one of the only genuinely political films I've ever seen come out of English Canada. And in reply to the previous comment, "by jove, something like that could really happen", the movie is supposedly based on well-researched events and is not entirely fictional. Canada DID conspire with Smallwood to derail the Newfoundland independence movement, which preferred its continued colonial status and direct ties to London, with greater democracy at home. It's dirty tricks from start to finish and all too real.

Perhaps because it's largely a Newfoundland cast, the acting is superb and the cast riveting, and there's no fake posing and stilted Canadian-style moralizing, as with so many self-consciously "political" films from Canada. The script comes across like a thriller, instead of the documentary flavour that we saw in the recent Tommy Douglas story, which was, well, kinda dull.

Secret Nation is a must-see for anyone interested in the current Canadian national political debates over the Constitution and regional discord. The only comparable films in the Canadian film catalogue I can think of are French-Canadian, such as Les Ordres. The recent made-for-TV thriller H20, with Paul Gross and directed by a Quebec director (making his first English film), is the next-best thriller in English about Canada I've seen; but it's science fiction; Secret Nation is fact.

The story seems interesting enough; looking at Newfoundland joining the Confederation and a conspiracy being involved. The now familiar cast of This Hour Has 22 Minutes give modest dramatic performances, and only brief flashes of comedy. The entire film suffers from a mellow tone that never lets us feel that there is any threat of danger to these characters... because there's not.

The addition of a the super-natural doesn't help anything, especially in the climax of a reality based drama. But like all Canadian films, just being made is an accomplishment in its own right.