Sarah Polley's 'Stories We Tell'

"When you are in the middle of a story it isn't a story at all, but only a confusion." - Margaret Atwood.

Sarah Polley's career has hardly been orthodox. A young Canadian actress who attained her popularity through a burgeoning  television career, she hit the big time with a role in Atom Egoyan's 1997 Academy Award-nominated The Sweet Hereafter. With the odd exception (namely her roles in 1999's Go and 2004's Dawn of the Dead), her acting career often saw her escaping the attention of the mainstream Hollywood machine, whilst still developing an exceptional resume for herself and continuing to maintain the attention of Canada's film industry (the highlight being an award-winning turn in 2003's My Life Without Me).

However, in 2007, things took a unique turn; the then-28 year old churned out her feature film-making debut, the ethereal Away From Her. This, a film about an aged couple dealing with the onset of Alzheimer's disease, saw both Polley and her lead actress, Julie Christie, nominated for Academy Awards, and became one of the most critically-acclaimed films of the year. 2012 saw the release of her follow-up, Take This Waltz, and barely a year later we see the release of her third feature - and her first doco - Stories We Tell.

Stories We Tell is another exceptional knot on the talented actress/writer/director's belt. It unravels a number of truths by providing detailed insight into the relationships of the Polley family, particularly focusing on the relationship between the filmmaker's mother and father. One may think this is a peculiar concept for a film - I know I certainly was hesitant at the idea - but the execution here is brilliant. What appears to be a film of modest scope quickly becomes an ever-expansive and incredibly philosophical adventure, exploring a vast array of topics such as the ownership of a story, the concept of truth, the nature of the memory and familial love.

There is an intricate beauty which Polley achieves, something reminiscent of her first effort; the natural, touching way in which the film weaves its narrative thread about is indicative of an extraordinary insight of the art form. She is so capable of affecting her audience, she knows just how to hit the spot (the use of Super-8 footage throughout is such a powerful tool, as is her father's narration)

and she does so with ease here. The structure of the film further allows Polley to manoeuvre her audience effectively, powerfully capturing the various tones of her story and allowing them to permeate in an organic way across the whole film. The film is truly all about perspective, and Polley considers that thoroughly in providing her messages to the audience. There is such an equally-handed, balanced way that she provides her narrative, and the fractures of the narrative are such a vivid core to the piece; I daresay even the vivid core to the film.

Something else which should also be noted is the way in which watching this film will affect the way its audience thinks about Polley's other work; certainly, a number of the themes explored in her two previous releases are brought to the forefront here and, when taken in light of both Take This Waltz and especially Away From Her, the shattering realisation of our filmmaker's truth is beautifully tragic.

Stories We Tell is extraordinarily brave, beautiful and brilliant art from Sarah Polley, and as a documentary piece, its insight is incredible. Its philosophies will embed themselves into your consciousness, its narratives will invade your heart and its beauty will be entrenched in your mind for days. A truly superb piece of cinema.