In this poignant epic, a young researcher follows in the footsteps of violinist Kathleen Parlow to restore her forgotten legacy. Her enigmatic quest takes her from Toronto to Oslo, where she attempts to reconcile the broken dreams of her dying mother with the violinist’s tormented past.
After its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2024, followed by a series of successes at international festivals, including the Grand Prix won at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (FNC) in Montreal, then a theatrical release across Canada in the fall of 2025, MESURES FUNÈBRES (Measures for a Funeral) by Canadian director Sofia Bohdanowicz is now available on video on demand!
Filmed partly in Montreal, MESURES FUNÈBRES highlights emblematic establishments of the metropolis and features Quebec talents such as Maxim Gaudette, Ève Duranceau, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchester Métropolitain, as well as Lisette Dufour and Sarah-Anne Parent in the dubbed version, among others.
SYNOPSISAudrey Benac (Deragh Campbell, Anne at 13,000 ft) confronts her destiny and her family history as she delves into the past of Kathleen Parlow, a forgotten Canadian violinist. Audrey is haunted by the broken dreams of her mother, a failed violinist whom she leaves behind on the verge of death. In a quest for archives and memories that takes her from Toronto to Oslo via London, the researcher will attempt not only to bring the violinist’s music back to life, but also to understand her past and accept her maternal heritage, following the echoes of a lost concerto dedicated to Parlow: opus 28. Directed by Sofia Bohdanowicz (MS Slavic 7), MEASURES FUNÈBRES is the poignant epic of a woman seeking to bridge the gap between the past and the future.
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHYSofia Bohdanowicz is an award-winning director from Toronto. His works have been presented at several renowned festivals, such as the BFI, NYFF, Viennale, Berlinale, Locarno, TIFF, Hot Docs, Sheffield and Doclisboa. In 2016, she won the Best Emerging Filmmaker award for her debut feature film, Never Eat Alone at the Vancouver International Film Festival. In 2017, the Toronto Film Critics Association awarded him the Jay Scott Award, and in 2018, his documentary House of Happiness was nominated for the Rogers Award for Best Canadian Film. Bohdanowicz’s third feature film, MS Slavic 7, had its world premiere at the Berlinale, was featured on the covers of Cinema Scope and the Argentinian newspaper Página/12, and was presented at the Harvard Film Archive. Her fourth feature film, A Woman Escapes, co-directed with Burak Çevik and Blake Williams, received the FICUNAM Churubusco Prize as part of its rough cut workshop, CATAPULTA. Presented as a world premiere in the FIDMarseille international competition, the film received an honorable mention from the Cnap prize jury. The director was recently named as one of the 22 most influential people in Canadian cinema by Barry Hertz of the Globe and Mail. His short film Point and Line to Plane won the Best International Short Film award at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Festival. Holding a master’s degree in film production from York University, Bohdanowicz was also selected for the Berlinale Talent and TIFF Talent Accelerator programs. Bohdanowicz’s latest feature film, Mesures Funèbres, received the Kodak and Silveryway Prize as part of the FIDMarseille co-production laboratory in 2020. It had its world premiere at TIFF in 2024, in the Centrepiece program. Sofia Bohdanowicz’s films are available on the Criterion platform.
CREDITSFUNERAL MEASURESa film by Sofia Bohdanowicz
GENRE: Fiction DURATION: 142 minutes IMAGE FORMAT: 2:39.1 AVAILABLE VERSIONS: VOA, VOSTF, dubbed in French AVAILABLE FORMATS: DCP, H264, BluRay/DVD
FEATURINGDeragh CampbellMaría DueñasMelanie ScheinerMary Margaret O’HaraMaxim GaudetteÈve DuranceauEileen DaviesRosa-Johan UddohYannick Nézet-Séguin
DUBBED VERSIONSarah-Anne ParentLisette DufourManon LeblancMaxim GaudetteJohanne GarneauAlice PascualÈve Duranceau
TECHNICAL TEAM Production: Aonan Yang, Andreas Mendritzki, Sofia Bohdanowicz Co-production: Priscilla Galvez Cinematography: Nikolay Michaylov Editing: Pablo Alvarez-Mesa, Sofia Bohdanowicz Costume design: Mara Zigler Set design: Jessica Hart Sound mixing: Lucas Prokaziuk Sound editing supervision: Stefana Fratila M.P.S.E. Original music : Olivier Alary Screenplay: Sofia Bohdanowicz, Deragh Campbell Executive production: Ryan Krisvoshey, Simone Urdl, Mustafa Uzuner Music production: Amanda Abdel Hadi