![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Michael-Gallagher_director-1024x683.png\")
Still image of The Leader director Michael Gallagher. (Courtesy: Fantasia International Film Festival)<\/p>\nContent Warning: This article may be disturbing to some readers as it includes mentions of suicide and the Heaven\u2019s Gate cult<\/p>\n
What could turn a housewife into a cult leader? That is one of the questions director Michael Gallagher sought to answer with his film The Leader, which held its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Starring Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring) and Tim Blake Nelson (Watchmen) in the lead roles, the film tells the story of dissatisfied housewife Bonnie Lu Nettles and religiously devout Marshall Herff Applewhite as they form the group which will come to be known as Heaven\u2019s Gate.<\/p>\n
Through awareness lessons offered to vulnerable people in search of purpose, Nettles and Applewhite, calling themselves Do and Ti, indoctrinate their followers into their belief system in which human bodies serve merely as \u201cvehicles\u201d for extraterrestrial beings who will soon rise to a higher consciousness.<\/p>\n
As a San Diego native himself, Gallagher says he has been looking to understand the cult and the tragedy that marked it his entire life. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was eight years old, 39 people committed suicide in my neighborhood, and it just\u00a0impacted\u00a0me like you\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0believe. It was something that, my whole life, I just wanted answers. So,\u00a0I found by digging in and looking past the headlines in the tabloid and seeing them as human beings, that was for me the whole reason to do the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still image of The Leader director Michael Gallagher. (Courtesy: Fantasia International Film Festival)<\/p>\n
Made almost three decades after what remains the largest mass suicide on U.S. soil, the film explores how people in search of meaning can fall prey to dogmatism and cult rhetoric, not because they are deranged, but because they are human.<\/p>\n
Farmiga says the exploration of this facet of the human experience is what drew her to the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0guilty of dismissing these people as lunatics when I saw it on television, and mining sort of the\u00a0heart and the humanity beneath those punchlines is what was very appealing to me,\u201d said Farmiga.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is not really, how could they? Could any of us do that, you\u00a0know, if\u00a0the circumstances were right?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_3721-1024x768.jpg\")
Michael Gallagher (left), writer and director of The Leader, and Vera Farmiga, who stars in The Leader, attend the film\u2019s premiere during the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Adriana Gentile, CityNews)<\/p>\n
For Fantasia artistic director and director of international programming Mitch Davis, beyond its role as a period piece, The Leader also touches on many present-day issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe film is very compassionate, and then compelling and deeply haunting. It\u2019s a period piece; at the same time, it speaks in smart ways to the current United States in terms of a cult of personality, reactionary alienation and the destruction of consensus reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the announcement that Gallagher and the Academy-Award nominated actress would be in attendance at the screening, film lovers from Montreal and beyond made their way down to the festival to welcome them to the city.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/THE_LEADER_BenMullen-1024x683.png\")
Still image from the film The Leader. (Courtesy: Fantasia International Film Festival)<\/p>\n
Los Angeles filmmaker Haneol\u00a0Lee, whose short film KPOP Smoothie is premiering at Fantasia on Saturday, was among them, attending the screening mere hours after he landed in Montreal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can already feel that there\u2019s a lot of cinema lovers here, like cinephiles, which is always heartwarming for a filmmaker because then it makes you think: \u2018Oh, people do like watching movies in theaters still\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danielle McRae Spisso, another Californian filmmaker in attendance, echoed the sentiment. <\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially in times like this where things are a little crazy all over the world, it\u2019s nice to see people come together and be able to enjoy movies together.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TheLeader_BenMullen_JimParsonsSimonRex2-1024x429.jpg\")
From left, Simon Rex and Jim Parsons starring in The Leader. (Courtesy: Fantasia International Film Festival)<\/p>\n
For Gallagher, he hopes one message sticks with audiences watching the film. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be aware of the dangers of certainty. Because\u00a0when there is nothing but certainty, and there\u2019s blind faith, I think that\u2019s where danger can strike, and\u00a0so,\u00a0I think\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0really important\u00a0for us to check in with ourselves about our beliefs and the people telling us what to believe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fantasia film festival runs at Concordia University and Cin\u00e9ma du Mus\u00e9e until Aug. 2. Tickets can be purchased in person at the Fantasia Box Office and\u00a0online<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tStill image from the film ‘The Leader.’ (Courtesy: Fantasia International Film Festival) <\/p>\n \t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n Add CityNews Montreal as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/theleader-still-1024x768.png\")
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