Away From Her - Production

Production

Sarah Polley was on a flight back from working on Hal Hartley's No Such Thing in Iceland when she read the Alice Munro short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" in The New Yorker. "I was so unbelievably moved by the story. I was just finished working with Julie Christie, and as I read, I keep seeing Julie's face in the character of Fiona," said Polley. "I am certainly not one of those people who reflectively thinks about adapting stories; I just want to leave the things I love alone. But this fascinated me. I read the story and I saw the film and I knew what the film was."

At that point of Polley's career, she had been acting since the age of six, and had written and directed two short films, Don't Think Twice and The Best Day of my Life. "For two years, I couldn't get the story out of my head and finally asked producer Danny Iron to look into getting the rights. I threw myself into writing, but it's daunting, taking on the work of somebody you respect so much. Alice Munro is one of my favorite writers because she looks right through things. The characters are all so flawed, so lovable in certain moments and so detestable in others. The adaptation didn't feel like a huge process because the film was embedded in that story."

Working alongside Polley were producers Jennifer Weiss, with whom she made her Genie-award winning short I Shout Love, and Simone Urdl, partners in the production company The Film Farm, and Daniel Iron of Foundry Films who produced Polley's first short Don't Think Twice. Atom Egoyan served as executive producer. Daniel Iron, having known Polley for a very long time, never doubted her ability to direct a feature. "I know how fiercely intelligent and diligent she is. She's been on sets since she was young and knows the craft better than any first time director. She shot-listed her first draft of the script."