Director Atom Egoyan Reflects on Art, the Canadian Film Industry, and his Latest Movie 'Seven Veils'
For more than four decades, Atom Egoyan has established himself as one of Canada’s foremost auteurs. In 1994, he achieved worldwide acclaim and commercial success with his haunting film Exotica. Three years later, The Sweet Hereafter earned him two Academy Award nominations for writing and directing. These two triumphs cemented his career, which he continues to this day. From the historical tragedy Ararat, the erotic thriller Chloe, the revenge drama Remember, to the psychological mystery film Where the Truth Lies, Egoyan’s accomplishments as an artist are unquestionable.
Of course, one would be very remiss to omit Egoyan’s achievements within the world of opera. In between Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter, Egoyan was invited by the Canadian Opera Company to put on a production of Salome by Richard Strauss. Based on the 1891 play by Oscar Wilde, Salome follows an account of the Biblical figure who is offered any gift by her stepfather and uncle, King Herod, if she will dance for him. Salome demands the head of the prophet Jochanaan (John the Baptist) after he had previously rejected her advances. In both the play and the opera, there are explicitly sexual themes around Salome’s desire for Jochanaan, as well as Herod’s incestuous desire for his stepdaughter/niece. As one can imagine, this caused both to be highly controversial upon their original releases. The former was banned in Britain for more than forty years, but the latter has become a staple piece within the opera world. In fact, such was the success of Egoyan’s production that he has remounted it a whopping six more times as of 2025.
The most recent one, in 2023, also inspired him to make a film around it. Seven Veils follows a theatre director named Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried) who mounts a production of the 1905 opera Salome in honour of her deceased mentor. However, this production is fraught with troubles, both external and internal, as Jeanine is forced to confront the trauma which she’s been repressing for a long time. The film marks the second collaboration between Egoyan and Siefried since their hit film Chloe. It also features a who’s who of Canadian talent: Rebecca Liddiard (Fargo, Alias Grace), Douglas Smith (Big Love, Big Little Lies), Vinessa Antoine (Diggstown, Being Erica) and Mark O’Brien (Republic of Doyle, The Righteous). Now, more than a year after its original TIFF premiere, Seven Veils is finally getting a theatrical release this March.
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“The most challenging thing was schedule,” Egoyan recalls of the production. Small wonder, for not only was he preparing an opera for its own release, but also a film which revolved entirely around the same opera set. “We couldn’t change the dates of the opera… the way film financing works is that you’re often shifting stuff or you’re accommodating schedules, but we were locked in.”
Anyone who has tried to make a film can well imagine the many hurdles which Egoyan would have to jump to direct Seven Veils, let alone do it while also juggling the dual role of opera director. For one thing, several of the opera singers played fictional versions of themselves in the film, even though they weren’t actors. This led to friction with one of the singers, leading to what Egoyan referred to as “a massive readjustment.” The film production was further hampered by financing loss, and also by the Director of Photography contracting COVID on the first day of shooting. “Film-making is incredibly stressful,” Egoyan reflects with a smile. “It’s a bit like strategizing for any battle.”
Anyone who has seen the trailer for Seven Veils will doubtlessly be expecting an intense emotional journey. This will hardly be out of place in Egoyan’s filmography; as he himself puts it, he keeps returning to the idea of “the truth of a circumstance often being a negotiation between two characters’ conflicting version of events.” His characters are often flawed and broken people, haunted by trauma from their past, or else losing themselves to an obsession. Based on what can be gleaned from the trailer, it looks like Jeanine will likely be doing both. Moreover, Seven Veils will also be addressing some very heavy subject matter.
“It shows that people don’t necessarily react to workplace violence in a way that we imagine,” Egoyan proffered. “They don’t necessarily go to Human Resources and do the right things, in terms of how we would think we understand.” In a world where the #MeToo movement has reshaped people’s perceptions of several industries, this will be an especially sensitive topic to address. However, Egoyan has clearly done his due diligence and he’s determined to portray his characters’ complicated responses to trauma. “I was trying to address the complexity of how people actually deal with these circumstances when they occur,” he explains, “based on stories which I had heard.”
By all accounts, Seven Veils looks to be a promising new entry in a career which has endured for more than forty years. Rare among Canadian artists, Egoyan has almost never ventured south of the border, preferring to work within the Canadian film industry. Over the course of his life, he has seen that industry change for both the better and the worse. “It’s become a lot more possible to make super low budget films,” he observes, “but it’s challenging to get them seen properly.” He is certainly one to say that, given how long it’s taken Seven Veils to reach theatres. However, despite his fears of a “saturated environment,” the Armenian-Canadian filmmaker is especially optimistic about the diverse voices which are emerging amongst the younger generations. Certainly, if there was anyone who can inspire new generations of Canadian filmmakers, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better candidate than Atom Egoyan.