from GAT

**TIFF/SKYY Vodka award for Best First Canadian Feature at TIFF 2010

**Named one of Canada’s Top 10 Films at TIFF 2010

**Winner, Super Écran award for Best Screenplay for 1st or 2nd feature at the Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois 2011

**Winner, Best Canadian Film at Female Eye Film Festival 2011

A haunting portrait of guilt and elusive redemption, Deborah Chow’s The High Cost of Living earned raves and headlines at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was selected Best First Canadian Feature. Now across Canada the general public can share the discovery, with the much-anticipated theatrical release, in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, on April 22, with more cities to follow.

The High Cost of Living is an eclectic star turn for Zach Braff (Garden State, Scrubs) alongside talented Quebec actors Isabelle Blais (Borderline, Human Trafficking, The Barbarian Invasions) and Patrick Labbe (Les Boys, Durham County) and newcomer Patrick Lo. Zach plays Henry, an American ex-pat in Montreal who, one night, takes a profoundly wrong turn. Weary, worn and well above the legal limit, he hits a pedestrian, a young woman he leaves in the street— unconscious, bleeding and thirty-four weeks pregnant. Nathalie (Isabelle Blais) wakes in the hospital only to find her future destroyed and the baby she is still carrying, dead. She is sent home with her husband Michel (Patrick Labbe) to carry the stillborn child as she tries to regain her health. Across town, in a rundown Chinatown apartment, Henry struggles with his conscience and combs the news in vain. Finally, he becomes proactive, enlisting a teenage neighbour Johnny (Patrick Lo) to discover the woman’s fate. Nathalie, meanwhile, struggles with loss. And Michel—too emotionally bereft to deal with the tragedy— offers little support. The baby that was supposed to save the marriage, is suddenly destroying it. When Nathalie meets Henry, he seems an unlikely guardian angel. But the refuge he offers is tainted. And when the police close in on the wrong suspect, conscience and convenience converge. Is the cost of living a moral life worth the price?

Writer, director Deborah Chow was born in Toronto, Canada, shortly after her parents emigrated from Australia. She completed her undergrad at McGill University, and received her M.F.A in directing from Columbia University. She has written and directed two short films, Daypass and The Hill, both of which toured extensively on the festival circuit and were broadcast worldwide.

The film will be released in Canada by Filmoption International who is also the International sales agent, and KINOSMITH Inc.