The Sweet Hereafter is a Canadian film which is an adaptation of the novel also called The Sweet Hereafter, written by Russell Banks. The sweet Hereafter, the Canadian film, was written and directed by Aton Egoyan in 1997. Aton attracted a lot of attention at the Sundance Film Festival for his early works. A few years later he broke into the public with one of his most famous works, Exotica, made in 1994. Later in 1997, The Sweet Hereafter brought him great attention and received two Oscar nominations. The Sweet Future was the transition he needed from making original films to adapted screenplays because it allowed him to break out of the thematic stalemate he was obsessed with. The Sweet Hereafter represented a change of pace for Egoyan that made him an even more incredible producer and writer. I think one of the most interesting things about films is how a director comes up with the idea for the film. In the case of “The Sweet Hereafter,” Atom Egoyan got the idea when his wife Arsinée Khanjan gave him the novel “The Sweet Hereafter” by Russell Banks as a birthday present. In an interview Egoyan said: "The moment I read it, I knew there was something really powerful in this story." This is when and how Atom got the idea that he wanted to write and produce the film "The Sweet Hereafter". Since it was a novel written by someone else, Atom had to ask permission and obtain the rights to the work. Russell Banks is the author of the novel "The Sweet Hereafter" on which the film of the same title is based. During an interview, Banks talked about how he got the idea to write the original novel from a New York Times article. The article was about a bus accident that occurred in 1989 in a small Mexican America... middle of paper... against each other and also wanting to take legal action. Another theme and meaning that Egoyan talked about was how Nichole is dealing with her father who molests her and how he takes advantage of her. Atom talks about how at the end of the film Nichole gains the power to overcome her father's control and reunite her parents and community by stopping the cause originally created by Banks in her novel. The Sweet Hereafter was a fantastic film. and it was very interesting to do more in-depth research into the making of the film and the meaning of some of the film's themes. Russell Banks and Atom Egoyan formed a great team in making the novel written by Banks and then the adaptation written and directed by Atom Egoyan to show the story of a devastating real-life incident that Banks heard about and referred to they wrote at the end.