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In a bow to mounting pressure from sponsors and the public, organizers at the Montreal World Film Festival have decided against showing screenings of the movie Karla. Formerly known as Deadly, the movie depicts the twisted romantic relationship between convicted child rapists and murderers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

According to this article, Montreal Festival Snuffs Killer Film, the festival's founder and head Serge Losique defended his programming of Karla by arguing that "notorious criminals" from Hitler to the Boston Strangler have been portrayed in film. The difference between this true crime movie and others, however, is that this movie is not just based on the horrific events, it depicts them. The official synopsis for the movie claims, "Every scene of the film was derived from events transcribed in court testimony using police reports, interviews between Karla and her psychiatrist, and videotape of the crimes shot by the perpetrators themselves." It has previously been reported that the victims of the crimes are portrayed by young actresses and that portions of the crimes are re-enacted.

The horrific murders of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French shook Canada, robbing a country of its innocence. The crimes are still very fresh in the minds of many Canadians, particularly those who lived in the St.Catherines area. Outrage over Homolka's relatively light sentence in return for testifying against Bernardo has never faded and became even more spirited with Homolka's July 4th release. An article printed at the time of Homolka's release quoted Jack Jadwab, executive director of the Association of Canadian Studies in Montreal as having said, "People think she's cheated the system. A violent crime like this, publicized the way it is, represents to many Canadians a bit of a stain on our reputation for being a nonviolent society." Truth be told, Homolka's release symbolizes even more - the injustice of our justice system.

Had Hollywood producers wished to effect change rather than exploit a family's pain for profit, Karla would depict the short comings of the Canadian legal system in this case. Of course, such a movie would not fill seats in American theatres and fill the pockets of Hollywood producers, so instead audiences are left watching re-enactments of Homolka's crimes and are begged to ask of themselves, "was Karla herself caught in Paul's web, a victim? Or did the fact that she joined him in his crimes in spite of having an apparent conscience make her evil even deeper than his?". However, in all honesty, Canadians really do not care to understand the inner workings of Homolka's mind nor her motivation in committing the gruesome crimes. Canadians just want justice to be served.


Previous posts on this movie and Karla Homolka
Exploiting a Families Pain for Profit
More On Deadly
Deadly Revisted
Deadly Continues to Cause a Stir
Revolving Door Justice