My Days of Mercy

Oscar nominee and powerhouse Canadian Ellen Page stars in a love story for our times. Made with passion, commitment, and an expert eye for the shadings in relationships, My Days of Mercy is a revelation.

Sisters Lucy (Page, also seen at this year's Festival in The Cured) and Martha Morrow (Amy Seimetz, also at this year's Festival with Lean On Pete and The Girlfriend Experience) are regular attendees at state executions across the Midwest, where they demonstrate in favour of abolishing the death penalty. At one such event, Lucy spots Mercy (Kate Mara, also at the Festival in Chappaquiddick), daughter of a police officer whose partner was killed by a man about to receive a lethal injection. Mercy is there to celebrate justice served.

Lucy and Mercy could be bitter enemies, yet they share an undeniable connection. Their relationship grows from hostility to curiosity to intense, physical passion. But eventually Lucy must confess her reasons for getting involved in the cause: her own father (Elias Koteas) was convicted of murder and now waits on death row. Can Lucy and Mercy overcome their intense differences, or will these differences consume them?

My Days of Mercy brings remarkable empathy and respect to all sides of a debate as divisive as the death penalty. By staying attentive to the details of her characters and what they want, director Tali Shalom-Ezer bridges intractable differences. She shows us that if anything can bring us together, it's love.