In Kazik Radwanski’s Matt and Mara, a chance reunion between a married professor and her charismatic, free-spirited college friend ignites an emotional journey of rekindled bonds, artistic tension, and unresolved desires, leading to a powerful exploration of friendship, memory, and missed opportunities. 

Mara (Deragh Campbell), a young creative writing professor in Toronto, has a chance encounter that leads her to reunite with Matt (Matt Johnson, director of Blackberry), a charismatic, free-spirited author from her past. The two were close friends during their university days, but now Mara’s life has changed significantly. She is married to Samir (Mounir Al Shami), an experimental musician, and together they are raising a new baby. When Matt, who has since become a successful author in New York, unexpectedly shows up on her university campus, they reconnect instantly. Despite the years that have passed, they fall back into the easy rapport they once shared, drawn together by their common interests. 

As Mara grows closer to Matt, she finds herself grappling with the difficulties in her strained marriage. When Samir cancels plans to accompany her to a conference, Matt steps in, and the two embark on a road trip. Throughout the journey, the unspoken tension between them intensifies, as their undefined relationship builds toward a reckoning with complicated and difficult consequences. 

In Matt and Mara, Toronto writer-director Kazik Radwanski reunites Deragh Campbell and Matt Johnson, the stars of his prizewinning drama Anne at 13,000 FT. (shown at FACETS in September 2021), which was also an incisive drama, but this one is about an old friendship which leads to uneasy thoughts and confusion. Campbell and Johnson give deeply committed performances, as they navigate their relationship, featuring camaraderie and artistic difference, personality conflicts, romantic attraction and mixed signals, in this powerful drama about memories and lost opportunities.