# Matthew Rankin's fever dream of Canada

> A Toronto Midnight Madness premiere turns the rise of Brian Mulroney into a collage of archive, animation and effects.
- Title: Matthew Rankin's fever dream of Canada | Shortify
- Summary: A Toronto Midnight Madness premiere turns the rise of Brian Mulroney into a collage of archive, animation and effects. Rankin keeps treating Canadian history…
- Keywords: film, canada, tiff, documentary, matthew rankin, Matthew, Rankin's, fever, dream, The Hollywood Reporter
- Source: The Hollywood Reporter — https://hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/matthew-rankin-film-ladies-and-gentlemen-brian-mulroney-chat-1236683600
- Author: Etan Vlessing
- Published: 2026-09-12T11:00:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: film, canada, tiff, documentary, matthew rankin
## Films that make you blink
Matthew Rankin builds movies about Canadiana that leave theatre audiences rubbing their eyes, unsure of what they just watched.

> Matthew Rankin's films about Canadiana tend to have theatrical audiences rubbing their eyes.
## A Canada that never was
His 2024 mashup Universal Language imagined a country where Persian and French are the two official languages.
## Tim Hortons, reimagined
In that same film, a local Tim Hortons turns into an Arabic tea lounge, one small swap that rewires the whole national picture.
## Midnight at the Royal Alex
Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney world premieres Sept. 15 in the Midnight Madness program at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre.
## Docufantasia, not documentary
Rankin stitches archival footage, special effects and animation into what he calls a digital docufantasia of politics and pop culture.

> a digital docufantasia of politics and pop culture
## The road to power
The subject is the climb of Brian Mulroney, Canada's 18th prime minister, told through collage rather than straight biography.
## Key takeaway

Rankin keeps treating Canadian history as raw material for surreal cinema, and the Mulroney film is his boldest swing yet.