‘ADORATION’: ATOM EGOYAN CRAFTS HAUNTING MEDITATION ON FEAR AND LOVE
By Jeff Simon
Buffalo News
June 19 2009
NY
There’s an absolutely amazing moment in Atom Egoyan’s new film
"Adoration." It’s nighttime in the Toronto suburbs. A young man and
the orphaned teen nephew he has been a virtual father to are setting
up their annual Christmas creche on the front lawn.
Out of nowhere, a Muslim woman appears in full black mufti. There is
nothing even remotely modest and unassuming about the woman’s hijab
(the veil covering her entire face except her eyes). It’s an ornately
patterned veil of silver inlaid over a black background. It is not the
hijab of a woman who wants to be in the background of anything. Rather,
it is the mark of a woman who wants to be seen and to provoke the
Toronto suburban night with her foreignness.