It must be the strangest and most conspicuous comeback in years. Larry Kent, the Canadian filmmaking pioneer behind such highly regarded works as The Bitter Ash (1963) and High (1967), has returned to features after a 13-year hiatus with The Hamster Cage, a stylish melodrama that will have its premiere at the World Film Festival.

The film depicts a family reunion at an upscale B.C. estate, showing that old tensions die hard, and that there are more than a few skeletons in the clan’s closet. The setup sounds familiar, but nothing else happens as expected in this incredibly quirky black comedy that includes incestuous relations and a fair amount of violence.

‘Over a period of time, I realized the same mistakes are made over and over and over again in a family,’ says Montreal-based Kent of his inspiration for The Hamster Cage, which he co-wrote with Daniel Williams. ‘That was what I was toying with – the idea that the sins of the father will be carried out again, despite the best efforts of the offspring to correct them. I also wanted to comment on all this right-wing ‘family values’ rhetoric.’

As well, Kent says he made a conscious decision to employ dark comedy, rather than drama, to make his points, steering clear of the effective but morose leanings of a film such as Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration. ‘I wanted to make the audience think, but I really wasn’t interested in depressing them,’ he notes.

Kent shot the film on a budget of less than $500,000 in Vancouver. ‘People really remember the films I did there in the 60s, and I’m treated like something of a legend. They remember those projects fondly,’ he says. ‘I wouldn’t have been able to make this film without the goodwill of people in Vancouver, and that I’m very thankful for. Making The Hamster Cage is the most fun I’ve had in a long time.’