Iron Road
Summer 2009 Summer Films series
Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 8:00pm
Acadia Cinema's Al Whittle Theatre
450 Main Street, Wolfville, NS
Directed by David Wu
Screenplay by Barry Pearson, Raymond Storey
Starring Peter O'Toole, Sam Neill, Sun Li, Luke MacFarlane, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Kenneth Mitchell and Gao Yun Xiang
Rated NR ·
2h 0m
Canada and China
English and Chinese
A Fundy Film pre-release screening, this is the story of three lives brought together in Canada’s west – a tale of disguise and forbidden love, set against the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Lured by the myth of “Gum San”, the Gold Mountain, thousands of Chinese workers left their homeland with a dream – to make their fortune laying the CPR through the treacherous mountain passes. The last great iron road (completed 1885), it linked Canada from coast to coast.
Iron Road is the story of a Chinese street urchin named Little Tiger, whose quest for her long-lost father takes her from a fireworks factory in China to a remote construction camp in the Rockies. It is the story of James Nichol, the irresponsible son of a railroad tycoon. And it is the story of a Book Man, the Chinese overseer of Little Tiger’s crew. Together, they are a window into the neglected history of the Chinese contribution to the railroad that tied Canada together.