Last September, TIFF screened the world premiere of war drama Fugitive Pieces, which went on to screen at Vancouver's fest, then Warsaw, Roma, and Thessaloniki. In December, it received the honor of being one of Canada's Top Ten. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that Samuel Goldwyn Films has picked up the rights to the film, starting with a U.S. premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February. A few months after that, the company plans to release the film to larger audiences this May.

Written and directed by Dexter and Six Feet Under alum and Toronto native Jeremy Podeswa, Fugitive Pieces is based on the novel by Anne Michaels. Set during World War II, the film follows a young boy's life after his Jewish parents and sister are attacked and taken by the Nazi army as he hid. He flees to the woods, and is brought to Greece by an archaeologist who takes care of him. When the war is over, the two move to Toronto, but Jakob can't leave his painful memories behind. Throughout his life, he is haunted by the memories of the horrific experience, and as THR describes it, he "attempts to deal with his losses through writing and the discovery of true love." It sounds like a heart-wrenching, yet sort of hopeful, flick that's just perfect for a showery May day.

Opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival is reserved for a Canadian title, to give the mother country a chance to shine before the spotlight is divided among dozens of (usually) higher-profile films. This year, Jeremy Podeswa's Fugitive Pieces was selected for the honor. Anne Thompson of Variety wrote a good profile of the director. A capsule review in the Toronto Sun noted that it was "not a festive way to launch" the festival, "but this haunted and haunting drama signals a year of seriousness and quality."

Writing in The Globe and Mail, Rick Groen called it a "good movie" and "an even better example of what the movies do more easily, more powerfully and more indelibly than any other medium." Peter Howell of the Toronto Star felt it was a "smart choice to open the fest ... yet for all of the merits of Podeswa's painterly approach to Michaels' source novel, Fugitive Pieces seems curiously drained of drama. The message is uncertain." NOW Magazine has a capsule view which comments favorably on the cinematography and the performances.

James Berardinelli of Reelviews described Fugitive Pieces as "forgettable." He said: "The film has lofty goals, but comes across as leaden and pretentious." Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere attended the press screening this morning, though he didn't last very long: "I was out the door after 30 minutes, but I was looking at my watch after the first 15 minutes. I don't care if it kicks in at the one-hour mark or whatever -- I won't sit through films like this." Wells is not a fan of lead actor Stephen Dillane: "He kills each and every film and play that he's in with his withered, crinkly-faced dweeby-ness." Look for a review from our own Ryan Stewart a little bit later -- assuming that Ryan didn't get run over by Jeff Wells on his locomotive race out of the theater.

Fugitive Pieces, the prize-winning first novel from poet Anne Michaels, is finally making its long-awaited transition to the big screen. The book tells the story of two men from different generations whose lives have been profoundly affected by the Holocaust: one witnessed the slaughter of his family, while the other is the child of survivors. According to a review at Amazon, "the novel is a meditation on the power of language to free our souls and allow us to find our own destinies." Uh, wow. How that's going to work, exactly? One hopes it isn't completely sacrificed in favor of a plot-point-A-to-plot-point-B screenplay.

The movie is being by Canadian director Jeremy Podeswa (of late a prolific helmer of American cable series, including Six Feet Under, Carnivàle, and The L Word), whose cast so far consists of Rosamund Pike, Stephen Dillane, and Croatian actor Rade Serbedzija; according to Screen Daily, there are two major roles left to cast, so the start of production is still a ways off.

The film, with a budget of about $10 million, is due in theaters in 2007.