Salman Rushdie has just celebrated a much-heralded collaboration with Canadian director Deepa Mehta on her latest feature Midnight’s Children, based on one of his novels.

Just in case you’ve forgotten, rewind to Valentine’s day in 1989 and Rushdie learning he was the subject of a fatwa, or death sentence, imposed by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini over another of his novels, The Satanic Verses.

International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) director René Rozon has picked as his opening night film the Jill Nicholls documentary The Fatwa: Salman’s Story, about Rushdie’s decade on the run from possible retribution for his artistic creation.

Rozon also programmed a raft of Canadian film titles for his 31st edition from March 14 to 24, including Patrick O’Connor’s Making a Name, about Montreal graffiti artists, Mario Côté’s A Morte in braccio, which focuses on choreography by Jeanne Renaud and performed by Louise Bédard.

Among in all 248 films from 28 countries is Justin Simms’ Hard Light, a portrait of Newfoundland and its inhabitants through the writings of poet-novelist Michael Crummey, Azulejos. Une utopie céramique, Luís de Moura Sobral’s look at a five-century-old artistic technique, and Paul Eichhorn’s painting documentary Aakideh: The Art & Legacy of Carl Beam, about Ojibway artist Carl Beam.

The Montreal festival also programmed a raft of theatre-themed films, including Marie-Pascale Laurencelle’s Crée-moi, crée-moi pas, Gilles Pelletier, un cœur de marin, directed by Pascal Gélinas and about a major Quebec theatre and TV star, and Pascal Gélinas’ Huguette Oligny, le goût de vivre, a portrait of the Quebec actress.