Year: 1990
Language: English
Format: 35mm Colour
Runtime: 101 min
Director: Cynthia Scott
Producer: David Wilson
Executive Producer: Rina Fraticelli, Colin Neale, Peter Katadotis
Writer: Gloria Demers
Cinematographer: David De Volpi, Roger Martin
Editor: David Wilson
Sound: Jacques Drouin, Hans Strobl, Danuta Klis, André Galbrand, Adrian Croll
Music: Marie Bernard
Cast: Cissy Meddings, Mary Meigs, Catherine Roche, Michelle Sweeney, Beth Webber, Alice Diabo, Winifred Holden, Constance Garneau
Production Company: National Film Board of Canada

When their tour bus breaks down in the Quebec countryside, eight elderly women are stranded at a deserted farmhouse. They have only their wits, their memories and their conversations with each other to sustain them. Through the long days and nights, this remarkable group of strangers shares life stories and exchanges intimate thoughts, turning the crisis into a magical time of humour and spirit.

Using non-professional actors – the youngest of whom was sixty-nine – director Cynthia Scott elicits some lively and truly moving performances with a script that draws on the women’s real-life experiences. The Company of Strangers is a film about people who are old, rather than a film about old people. There are no pat answers or romantic, fatal diseases. Instead, there are just eight women who have seen the changes the century has brought, and the film allows the viewer to discover the value of each one. The result is a surprising and insightful drama.

The biggest-grossing film in National Film Board history (exceeding four million dollars outside Canada), The Company of Strangers was released internationally as Strangers in Good Company and was very well received. In addition to being named Grand Prize winner at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfest and Most Popular Canadian Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival, it received six Genie Award nominations, winning for David Wilson’s film editing.