103 minutes – Drama
Release date: May 16, 1994
DVD release date: January 1, 1996
Canadian distributor: Alliance Films
US distributor: Miramax Films

Exotica tells the story of a group of individuals bound to each other by desire and loss. Elias Koteas and Mia Kirshner play co-workers Eric and Christina at the Exotica nightclub where the specialty is private lap dancing. They’ve known each other for a few years and met during a tragic and emotional search for a missing child. The owner of the nighclub is played by Arsinée Khanjian. Expecting her own child, she runs Exotica in an organized, controlled and controlling fashion, where emotions are not allowed to interfere with business. Things get complicated when Bruce Greenwood, playing a tax auditor named Francis, begins to frequent Exotica. Through him we meet most of the cast. For example, he has known Christina for many years, first as his child`s babysitter and now as his private dancer where she seems to be the repository of his longings for the daughter he desperately misses. We meet his brother, Harold, played by Victor Garber, but their relationship is full of tension resulting from some unspoken past betrayal. Their real link is through Harold`s daughter Tracey, played by Sarah Polley, who is hired by Francis to “baby-sit” at his house while he is at Exotica. We also meet Thomas, a pet store owner played by Don McKellar, who sells exotic animals from foreign countries on the side. When Francis enters his shop to audit his books, they move together into a world of voyeurism and deceit, where the exotic can become the dangerous.

The poster for Exotica was scanned from an original in the Northernstars Collection.