format:35mm, Colour, English
running time:Feature Film
writer:Simon Barry
producers:Christine Haebler, Trish Dolman
development financing:Harold Greenberg Fund,
Telefilm, BC Film, Movie Central
Status:3rd Draft

An ambitious young lawyer gets more than he bargained for when he accepts a mysterious job by an American construction firm operating in the fictional country of Kashiqstan. Incredibly naïve, he believes he is supporting pro-democratic initiatives to re-build the country after civil war; however, the money and power soon compromise his judgment and objectivity. As he begins to lose his moral compass, his ill-fated decision to cover-up a hideous crime he inadvertently commits threatens the stability of his company, the security of the country, and his fragile relationship with his own family.

Adapted from the eponymous novel by Paul Micou, The Leper’s Bell boasts a familiar, if not deliciously dark Faustian tale of one man’s unbridled ambition and the lengths he will go to for position and power. Part political thriller and part morality play, The Leper’s Bell is an evocative, timely story about corruption that certainly proves the age-old quote that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The actual quote precedes a second sentence; “great men are almost always bad men,” which is almost more telling than the first.