Ahead of its hotly anticipated world premiere opening night of the 26th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival, North America’s premier genre festival, Filmoption International and Epic Pictures have released the first-look teaser of POLARIS, the latest feature from celebrated Canadian filmmaker KC Carthew. Following the premiere on July 14th and future festival screenings, Filmoption International will theatrically release the film in Canada.

A winter-set, post-apocalyptic fantasy fable set in the year 2144, POLARIS takes place in an unspecified part of the world reeling from the consequences of ecological fallout, uniquely conceived in a wholly new language and presented without subtitles. The all-female cast is impressively led by 13-year-old — who was only 11 at the time of filming — Korean-Canadian actress Viva Lee (Syfy’s Deadly Class) alongside Khamisa Wilsher (Netflix’s The Hollow, CW’s Charmed) and veteran stage, television, and film actress Muriel Dutil (Curling, Ressac).

Expanded from her award-winning short film Fish Out of Water, which premiered at Fantasia in 2015, Carthew has set the stage with a magical world inspired by Greek mythology with themes incited by the urgency of the current environmental crisis and built upon the activist movement and ideology of ecofeminism. Recognized for spectacular world-building in her visual storytelling, POLARIS is Carthew’s second feature following her celebrated debut The Sun At Midnight, which starred Kawannáhere Devery Jacobs (“Reservation Dogs”, Blood Quantum).

A pan-Canadian co-production between the Yukon, Quebec, and Ontario, POLARIS is produced by Carthew and Max Fraser for Little Dipper Films Inc., Paul Cadieux for Megafun Productions, and Alyson Richards for Alyson Richards Productions. Patrick Ewald and Kalani Dreimanis serve as Executive Producers for Epic Pictures Group, who also co-financed and handle world sales excluding Canada on the title.