Atom Egoyan
Layers Upon Layers
The San Francisco International Film Festival has opened its doors presenting some of the best new films from around the world. Atom Egoyan is an Armenian filmmaker and his films often show a process of sifting through stories, memories and history to come to a present understanding of a present condition. His current film, Adoration, continues in the same vein, looking at similar themes—who are we, what have we been told, what is truth and how do we arrive at our own truth. In this case however, the virtual world is involved. A young teenager, Simon, is doing a translation exercise in French class. In the class, Simon adopts a story, taking it as his own and sharing it with his friends. It goes viral and suddenly Simon goes from being a student in a small high school to a world known figure based on fabricated facts. What is our real identity, is it separate from the one created online and what are the dangers of this discrepancy?
