TORONTO - Leaving behind the sterile office corridors of 鈥淪everance,鈥 Britt Lower pedalled through Toronto's bustling streets in order to find her charactersa国际传媒 pulse for 鈥淒arkest Miriam.鈥
Directed by Naomi Jaye, the brooding and quirky Canadian drama is adapted from Martha Bailliesa国际传媒 Giller Prize-shortlisted novel 鈥淭he Incident Report,鈥 which draws on the authorsa国际传媒 own experiences as a Toronto librarian.聽
Lower stars as Miriam Gordon, an introverted librarian at the citysa国际传媒 Allan Gardens branch, who moves through a haze of melancholy while serving those on the fringes of society.
The actor shared that while Bailliesa国际传媒 book helped her understand Miriamsa国际传媒 鈥渋nner life,鈥 it was the citysa国际传媒 roadways that truly anchored her in the protagonistsa国际传媒 world.
鈥淚 had the physical job of biking around Toronto and feeling what it was like to be someone who gets around the city on her bicycle,鈥 says Lower, who lives in New York, praising Toronto's roads with bike lanes for allowing cyclists and cars to "move in perfect harmony."聽
鈥淭here's a toughness to the commuter culture whenever you're commuting in a city on a bicycle... It takes, I think, a level of bravery and a kind of toughness that gave me an insight into how she is protecting herself with her helmet and her big backpack, but then she falls into this construction hole that she has no idea has been dug in front of her home.鈥
Though construction-related headaches are a familiar frustration for Torontonians, the accident serves as a turning point for Miriam, triggering an emotional shift. During a hospital checkup the next day, she's asked questions she refuses to answer, including whether she's ever experienced suicidal thoughts.
鈥淔alling into that hole really cracks her open and opens her up to the world around her,鈥 says Lower, best known for playing Helly R. on Apple TV Plus鈥 hit sci-fi show 鈥淪everance.鈥
鈥淒arkest Miriam鈥 hits Canadian theatres Friday and opened the Canadian Film Fest earlier this week.聽
鈥淚 just love Canada,鈥 says Lower, whosa国际传媒 from Illinois and spent lots of time in Toronto filming the FX comedy 鈥淢an Seeking Woman,鈥 which aired from 2015 to 2017.
During her lunch breaks, Miriam retreats to Allan Gardens, a park and botanical garden in the city's east end, where she crosses paths with Janko, a Slovenian taxi driver played by Tom Mercier, and the two begin a relationship. Lower recalls spending much of her own downtime in Torontosa国际传媒 green spaces while filming in 2022, including a sprawling Queen West park known for attracting downtowners and a famously pale rodent.
鈥淚 love Trinity Bellwoods. I have spotted the albino squirrels. It's a great city.鈥
Jaye remembers discovering Bailliesa国际传媒 novel in a bookstore and feeling instantly captivated. As soon as she bought it, she contacted the publisher, declaring her intent to adapt the book into a film.聽
鈥淚t was just the way Miriam saw the world and the way that she interacted with the people in the library and the strangeness of those experiences. It just felt so engaging and very familiar,鈥 says Jaye, who made her filmmaking debut in 2013 with Second World War-set romantic drama 鈥淭he Pin.鈥澛
Screenwriter and director Charlie Kaufman, a friend and fan of Bailliesa国际传媒, lends his name to 鈥淒arkest Miriam鈥 as an executive producer.
Miriam dryly chronicles the librarysa国际传媒 regulars, filing reports on every disturbance. She notes Suitcase Man, who never parts with his luggage, and Fainting Man, a new immigrant with no health coverage.
Jaye explains that the film captures how 鈥渓ibrarians are now also social workers.鈥
"Libraries are these spaces that hold the stories of our culture. They hold our history and they hold the last place of an actual public space that you can occupy in a big city," adds Lower.
She notes that these spaces offer societysa国际传媒 most vulnerable a rare refuge where they can use the internet or rest without having to spend money.
Jaye says what keeps Miriam at the library is trauma stemming from her relationship with her father, who was obsessed with books.
鈥淪he replicates her father's circumstance,鈥 she says.
鈥淪he ends up working in a library surrounding herself with books, listening to other people's stories instead of creating her own story. So it really is this prison that she makes for herself and the story is how she breaks out of it.鈥
The theme of self-imposed confinement may bring to mind 鈥淪everance,鈥 where characters grapple with separating their personal and professional lives, trapped in an environment they鈥檝e unintentionally created for themselves.
While Lower tends to 鈥渃ompartmentalize鈥 her characters, she finds a parallel between the two projects.
鈥淭here's the world of the office and the world of the library, these workspaces that we all have some kind of relationship to,鈥 she reflects.
鈥淓ven if we don't work in a library or an office, we all have some kind of universal relationship to both spaces.鈥
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2025.
Note to readers:This is a corrected story. An earlier version referred to the Canadian Film Festival, but its name is the Canadian Film Fest.
