Renowned director Atom Egoyan reunites with Seyfried in this visually stunning, propulsive work (the conclusion of a trilogy of sorts with EXOTICA and THE SWEET HEREAFTER), filmed on location during the staging of Egoyan’s own acclaimed 2023 production of “Salome” — the turn of the 20th-century opera by Richard Strauss, itself based on the one-act play by Oscar Wilde and commissioned by Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company. After years away, theater director Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried) re-enters the opera world to stage her former mentor’s most famous work. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, Jeanine allows her repressed trauma to color the present as her personal and professional lives begin to unravel.
“[Atom Egoyan] could have simply filmed his latest Canadian Opera Company remounting of ‘Salome,’ a visceral Bible extrapolation... Instead he chose to make fresh drama out of it, syncing his screen and stage passions to mesmerizing effect.” —Peter Howell, Toronto Star “Art and life are inextricably entangled in Atom Egoyan‘s SEVEN VEILS, a wildly ambitious, visually intoxicating reinterpretation of the Richard Strauss opera, ‘Salome,’ that proves to possess almost as many layers as the Biblical princess’ famous dance routine…. Seyfriend impressively conveys a myriad of tamped-down, long-repressed emotions with an economy of dialogue at her disposal.” —Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Review “A fascinating film about appropriation — not cultural but personal, the morally dubious territory in which the artist takes your trauma and spins it into gold.” —Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail
