105 minutes – Drama
Language: English
Festival release date: September 3, 2019 (Venice Film Festival, World Premiere)
Release date: July 10, 2020
Production company: The Film Farm, Ego Film Arts, Playtime, Telefilm Canada
Canadian distributor: Elevation Pictures

Jim (David Thewlis) and his daughter Veronica (Laysla De Oliveira), a young high school music teacher, attempt to unravel their complicated histories and intertwined secrets in a film that weaves through time exploring perception and penance, memory and forgiveness. A hoax instigated by an aggressive school bus driver (Rossif Sutherland) goes very wrong. Veronica is accused of abusing her position of authority with 17-year-old Clive (Alexandre Bourgeois) and another student, and is imprisoned. Convinced that she deserves to be punished for crimes she committed at an earlier age, she rebuffs her father’s attempts to secure her early release. Confused and frustrated by his daughter’s intransigence, Jim’s anguish begins to impinge on his job. As a food inspector, he wields great power over small, family-owned restaurants. It’s a power he doesn’t hesitate to use. When her father dies, Veronica confides the secrets of her past to Father Greg (Luke Wilson) who may hold the final piece of this father-daughter puzzle.

Guest of Honour will have its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2019. Film clip courtesy of Elevation Pictures.