Sarah Polley has started work on her feature directing debut, and is in Hamilton, ON until next month with Away from Her - an adaptation of an Alice Munro short story starring Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie.

Pinsent plays a doting husband whose wife falls for another man after she is put in a nursing home for people with Alzheimer's disease. The wife, played by Christie, then slips into a deep depression when her new beau leaves the home.

Not exactly a comedy. But producer Danny Iron believes Away will play well at festivals and to mainstream moviegoers.

"It's quite a beautiful, touching story," says Iron (Northern Town, The Saddest Music in the World). "It's also quite tragic. Looking at it, you can see how the story and Sarah's script could draw out the acting talent."

Iron, of Foundry Films and formerly of Rhombus Media, produces with Simon Urdl (Sabah) and Jennifer Weiss (Luck) of The Film Farm, under the banner of Pulling Focus Pictures. Victoria Hirst is coproducer, under exec producer Atom Egoyan.

Polley adapted the script from the Munro story The Bear Came Over the Mountain, and has worked with most of her producers before. Iron produced her 1999 short Don't Think Twice and Weiss worked on the 2001 Genie winner I Shout Love. Egoyan, of course, cast her in The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica.

"We all had a long relationship with Sarah, in various capacities. And when it came time for her to produce her first feature, it was a natural fit for the three of us to be doing it with her," says Urdl.

The strong cast also includes Olympia Dukakis (3 Needles), Michael Murphy (X-Men: The Last Stand), Kristen Thomson (I, Claudia), Wendy Crewson (Niagara Motel) and Alberta Watson (Some Things That Stay).

The project pushes aside another, more art-house feature Polley had been planning to direct under Urdl and Weiss. Itchy has been shelved for now, but "will be revived at some point," says Urdl.

Production runs mostly in rural Ontario - Lake of Bays, Kitchener, Paris, Hamilton - until April 7 on a $4-million budget, with help from Telefilm Canada, CTF, The Harold Greenberg Fund, The Movie Network/Movie Central and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Luc Montpellier (Sabah, The Saddest Music in the World) is DOP, while Polley's husband, David Wharnsby (Saddest Music), will edit. Capri Releasing will distribute in Canada. William Morris Independent will rep the film in the U.S., while HanWay handles worldwide sales.