THE HANGING GARDEN (1997).

The Hanging Garden
Directed & Produced by Thom Fitzgerald
Written by Louise Garfield
Starring: Arnie Gelbart, Troy Veinotte, Sarah Polley, Peter MacNeill, Seana McKenna
Music by John Roby
Running time 91 min.
Awards: Genie Award, Claude Jutra Award, Atlantic Film Festival, Audience Award, Troia International Film Festival, FIPRESCI Prize, GLAAD Media Awards, Mar del Plata Film Festival Best Screenplay, Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award, Vancouver International Film Festival Most Popular Canadian Film, Sudbury Cinefest Best Canadian Film Award, Chlotrudis Award.
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The Hanging Garden is a 1997 British/Canadian movie written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald that is about the duality of life and death and the way seemingly very different choices in life can lead to similar outcomes.
25-year-old Sweet William (Chris Leavins) returns to his parents' house after ten years of absence to attend the wedding of his sister Rosemary (Kerry Fox). It is revealed that he was once a gay, obese teenager (played by Troy Veinotte), who was caught having sex with his bisexual friend Fletcher (Joel Keller) in the garden by his grandmother when he was 15; Rosemary is marrying Fletcher.
As a consequence of the ensuing rejection, particularly by his father (Peter MacNeill), Sweet William had the choice of either running away to live in a big city far away from the family or committing suicide by hanging himself from a tree in the garden.
In the movie, both the alive, now slender and self-assured Sweet William and the obese, suffocated teenage Sweet William, hanging as a fresh corpse in the garden, are present and interacting. In the version of reality where Sweet William dies, his family members cannot shed their memories of his death and carry on with their lives, whereas in the other version Sweet William is haunted by memories of his father's misbehavior and is unable to reconcile with him.
As well, a new family member, Violet (Christine Dunsworth) is subsequently revealed to have been fathered by Sweet William, from an incident when Sweet William's mother (Seana McKenna) took him to a prostitute in an attempt to "cure" his homosexuality.
The cast also includes Sarah Polley, Joan Orenstein, Heather Rankin and a cameo appearance by Ashley MacIsaac.

(part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9) .