Ann Marie Fleming wants Window Horses to inspire you to pick up a book of poetry

Remember how you felt going on your first big trip? You were probably nervous, but also excited to learn about a new place, maybe a place that's your dream destination. 

That's part of the premise of the new animated feature film, Window Horses, which opens in theatres today in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. 

Rosie Ming is the traveller in question. She's a mixed-race Canadian girl with a Chinese mother and Persian father. But instead of setting off to her dream destination, which is Paris, Rosie ends up going to Iran where she was invited to an international poetry festival after she self-published a book of poetry.

"I can't explain why I chose Iran, but I felt like it had to be Iran," says creator Ann Marie Fleming. "There's this negative portrayal of Iran and I wanted to show how we're all more the same than we are different." 

She adds that, ultimately, her goal for the film is to get "people to go pick up a book of poems, to ask each other questions, to be open, to listen, to realize that kindness has an amazing power and we all have the ability to use it on a daily basis."

— Produced by Dawna Dingwall