Lois Siegel Movies

A Somalian refugee attempting to build a new life in Canada is forced into the streets along with her two daughters in director Helene Klodawsky's intimate family drama. Ayan is a headstrong mother of two who is determined to provide for her family. After fleeing from East Africa with her two teenage daughters Nasrah and Leila, Ayan takes on two jobs in an attempt to provide shelter to her daughters and send money back to Africa for her husband and two sons. While Ayan is confident that she has the endurance needed to accomplish her goal, fate deals her a cruel blow when soaring rent prices and an acute housing shortage force the mother and her daughters out onto the streets. But this isn't the first time that Ayan has lost a home, and as the summer heat flares she retreats to a local hotel room prepared to rebuild her life by whatever means necessary. This is Ayan's most desperate hour, yet her daughter Nasrah seems to be drifting away rather than pulling the family together. By day Ayan works while Nasrah begrudgingly looks after her younger sister Leila. It is then, during the hours that the mother is away, that handsome neighbor Rudy materializes and offers the naïve Nasrah the friendship and understanding that she so desperately longs for. But Rudy is far from the friendly stranger he makes himself out to be, and when a harmless cell phone sets the stage for disaster, desperate mother Ayan will be forced to confront her greatest fear. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This Canadian fantasy, aimed at children, is the sequel to 1987's Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller. This imaginative story has Tommy, his sister and friends gathered together to try to liberate Charles Merriweather who has been stuck for 60 years on a Canadian stamp depicting the famous Bluenose sailing ship. They begin to work their magic. Tommy is hoping that the newly returned Charles will become his partner in a stamp collecting business. The other two just want to help him. The magic works and Charles returns. But surprise! It isn't Charles at all, but Molly Merriweather, Charles' pretty little sister. Unfortunately Molly begins aging rapidly and can only regain her youth after the youngsters cover her with Bluenose stamps. To get them they had to go to the Cook Islands. They succeed, Tommy falls in love, Charles returns, and all is well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Tommy (Anthony Rogers) is a young stamp collector who gets his friend Ralph (Lucas Evans) to trade him a stamp from Ralph's father's collection in this engaging children's fantasy. Ralph and sister Nancy (Jill Stanley) try to buy it back from the local collectable store with no success. The siblings instead come up with a stamp collection from 1928 which includes a letter from a little boy. The letter contains magical rhymes that when recited shrink Ralph down to size. He is then able to travel around the world on various stamps to exotic places. Ralph learns that a rare collection of stamps awaits him when he arrives in Australia. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The recipe for this "20th-century cake" seems to have been to grab whatever was in the kitchen, throw it into the pot, thoroughly mix it up -- and then leave. The stories of Greg and Charles, both out looking for work, occasion a series of disconnected sketches that include a mechanic talking to the owner of an ailing car, children expressing their thoughts, an intriguing woman inside a café, and other happenings or nonhappenings. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide