The Tracey Fragments - World Premiere in Berlin!

Bruce McDonald’s The Tracey Fragments, starring the internationally acclaimed Ellen Page, to open Berlinale’s prestigious Panorama Program

January 22^nd, 2007 – Today in Toronto, the producers of The Tracey Fragments, and Bavaria Film International are thrilled to announce that The Tracey Fragments has been invited to open the prestigious Panorama program of the 57^th annual Berlin International Film Festival.

The newest feature film from vanguard Canadian director Bruce McDonald, The Tracey Fragments is based on the critically-acclaimed novel of the same name by Vancouver author Maureen Medved, who also penned the screenplay, and stars internationally acclaimed young actress Ellen Page (An American Crime, X-Men 3, Mouth to Mouth, Hard Candy) as the scarred protagonist Tracey Berkowitz.

The Berlinale screening will be the film’s World Premiere; director McDonald is scheduled to attend the screening with Cast & Crew on Friday, February 8^th.

Shot in and around Toronto in the winter of 2006 by cinematographer Steve Cosens (Snow Cake, Flower and Garnet) The Tracey Fragments teams Bruce McDonald with editors Jeremy Munce and Gareth Scales to revisit the editorial experimentation McDonald began in such films as Hard Core Logo and Picture Claire. Employing multi-frame editing and the introduction of archive footage to startling effect, The Tracey Fragments pushes the boundaries of cinematic language to get inside the dizzy heart of protagonist Tracey Berkowitz.

The Tracey Fragments opens on 15-year-old Tracey Berkowitz; naked under a tattered shower curtain at the back of a bus, looking for her little brother Sonny, who thinks he’s a dog.

Tracey’s journey leads us into the dark underbelly of the city, into the emotional cesspool of her home, through the brutality of her high school, the clinical cat and mouse games with her shrink and her soaring fantasies of Billy Zero – her boyfriend and rock ’n’ roll saviour.

Tracey’s stories begin to intertwine truth with lies, hope with despair and guilt with redemption as we move closer to the truth of Sonny’s disappearance.

The Tracey Fragments is a stirring tragic comedy and a 21^st century ‘Catcher in the Rye’, told in a dazzling pop-art fashion.

The Tracey Fragments is a Shadow Shows production in association with Corvid Pictures and Alcina Pictures.

The Tracey Fragments is produced in participation with Telefilm Canada, the Harold Greenburg Fund, Movie Central, The Movie Network and Rogers Telefund.

Founded in 1997, BAVARIA FILM INTERNATIONAL soon became Germany's leading world sales company and has since expanded into the distribution of international films as well. It offers a broad spectrum of quality feature films with a distinct approach, combining productions by well-established German filmmakers such as Tom Tykwer, Caroline Link, or Fatih Akin with bright new talents and international 'signature directors of the kind of Jean-Jacques Beineix, Aki Kaurismäki or Kim Ki-Duk.'