by SARAH ROWLAND

When Eric Rudolph was finally arrested in May 2003 for bombing two women's clinics, it not only strengthened the Christian right's resolve to fight for the lives of the unborn, it also rejuvenated the left's determination to keep fighting for the right to choose. And it inspired Todd Solondz to explore the irreconcilabilities of the issue in his latest film Palindromes.

"What really struck me about that case was how the whole community that rallied around him was so sympathetic to his cause," says Solondz during our phone interview. "It really drove home the idea of how profoundly human it is for people to think they're fighting the good fight. I'm sure even Stalin on his deathbed thought he was basically a good person."

But church-sanctioned assassins are not the only ones who come across as villains in Solondz's controversial dark comedy. He is equally brutal to both sides, in particular by portraying the two opposing maternal figures as hypocrites. Ellen Barkin plays a creepy Stepford leftist who is pro-choice in theory, until her 12-year-old daughter Aviva announces that she's got a bun in the oven and she's not givin' it up. Despite Aviva's pleas to keep it, supermom forces her to abort. Although Aviva doesn't know it, the procedure renders her sterile.

Not only that, the botched abortion prompts her to run away from home into the arms of Mama Sunshine (Debra Monk), who is two tons of Christian fun, taking in orphans, clothing them, feeding them (freedom fries, of course) and teaching them God's will, which is apparently to pick off gynaecologists one by one by whatever means possible.

"With Barkin's character, I wanted to show that a liberal mind is not always an open one," says Solondz. "She's a good woman. If you give her the form, she'll check off anti-war, pro-gun control and pro gay rights etc. But when reality hits her, she has to face the moral consequences of what it means to take one of the these positions."

Bush, Moore and Gallo

In most interviews, Solondz himself is a little evasive about his own view on the right to choose. There was a time when questioning an indie filmmaker's allegiance to Bush and co. was unfathomable, but since Vincent Gallo came out about being a staunch Republican, the query is now fair game.

"Well, I'm willing to say that I'm anti-anti-choice," says Solondz. "But in terms of the movie, I don't want to give myself away."

Why would he? He seems to be having too much fun poking and prodding both sides of the issues. He's already made a name for himself on several Christian Web sites and even pissed off some lefty critics by making Barkin's character such a complete and utter moral failure. Despite all the hoopla, however, he has no presumptions that his film will alter anyone's political convictions.

"I don't know that anyone can really do that," he says. "Michael Moore made Fahrenheit 9/11 with the express design to alter the election, if not history. You have to question: did he change anyone's mind? Liberals who saw it felt more confirmed in their righteousness. Those with conservative stripes interpreted the scene where the president is reading My Pet Goat as him simply deliberating and not being too rash."

Dawn of the dead

Before Palindromes delves into any of the hot topics, though, Solondz makes a point of killing off his career-launching character Dawn Wiener in the opening scene. Many may remember (or relate to) the much maligned human oddity that is Wiener Dog from his 1995 breakthrough hit Welcome to the Dollhouse, a film that perfectly captures the tortured existence of an elementary school social pariah. Two controversial features later (1998's Happiness and 2001's Storytelling), and moviegoers still expect Solondz to deliver WTTD the Sequel, something he wants to put an end to.

"I wanted to reference Welcome to the Dollhouse to provide a demarcation - ‘That was that kind of a movie and here I'm going in a very different direction and so expect a very different kind of movie.'"

Of course, the major difference is that his heroine is played by eight different actresses, including a 300-pound African American with a Mike Tyson voice, a couple of frumpy Jewish girls and fortysomething Jennifer Jason Leigh. The point of the exercise, apparently, is to ensure that the audience doesn't identify with one actress.

"I remember when I made Welcome to the Dollhouse, people would come up to me - it could be a beautiful model or a big heavy-set construction worker, it didn't matter - and they'd all say the same thing: ‘That was me.' So I was like, ‘Okay, well you can't all be Dawn Wiener, but you can be her cousin Aviva.'"

For this passing of the torch, he pleaded with Heather Matarazzo to reprise her role as Wiener for Palindromes' funeral parlour scene. But ultimately she refused and the casket is filmed closed. "There wasn't a lot in the way of money to offer her, and I don't think money would have made a difference, because I begged her like I've never begged anyone before. And what can I say, she was immune to my pleas."

Funny freaks

One of the funniest parts of the movie is when Mama Sunshine's maimed orphans perform Christian pop numbers with headsets on. This surreal Freaks meets N Sync musical sequence evokes plenty of guilty laughter.

"If I thought about offending people's sensibilities, then I wouldn't make any of these movies," he says. "I remember, back with Welcome to the Dollhouse, being worried that women might attack me - what do I know about 11-year-old girls, rape and so forth. But I just had to be truthful to the integrity of the reality that I was setting up."

And besides, Solondz doesn't find the humour in the choreographed numbers. "That was the most moving scene to witness," he says. "These children had such pride and joy in their performances, such profound delight. At the same time, you step back and think, ‘Oh, my God, what are they singing about?' And really, why should these children with disabilities be disenfranchised from comedy or satire? Certainly, if the joke were at the expense of children with disabilities, that would be an obscenity."

Along with the physical comedy, the film is sprinkled with hilarious one-liners, like when the pro-life hitman who shoots at the doctor but misses, instead killing an innocent bystander, yells at God, ‘How many times must I be born... again?'"

It's clear that if Solondz wanted to, he could leave out the controversial aspects of his films and just make wry dark comedies, which could potentially save him the grief of being targeted by the Eric Rudolphs of the world. But that's not likely to happen.

"If my sole purpose was simply to make people laugh, I would have a very different career making very different movies. But then again, I'd certainly be a much richer man."

Palindromes opens at Cinéma du Parc Friday, May 27

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