Valerie Cadieux

Damien Nadeau-Daneau, a young filmaker, is unable to finish a movie he started with french actor Denis Lavant. Indebted, he’s working at a post-production company, far from his artistic ideals. On the eve of his 33rd birthday, he is self-centered, unsatisfied, and lost in his own life. With no drama of his own, he is confronted with that of others who he meets over the course of his life. He will discover that reality is way more interesting than fiction.

Matthieu, a 33 year old Parisian who finds out that the father he never knew has died and decides to go to his funeral in order to meet his two siblings in Quebec. But once in Montréal, he realizes that nobody is aware of his existence or even interested in it. He is alone, in hostile territory…Filled with secrets, this story about one man’s coming to term with the foreign family he never knew he had is complex with interconnected themes such as masculinity, family, paternity and filial devotion coiling in the layers underneath.

1978. In a small village in Bas-St-Laurent, Guy’s tragic death is a shock for the Leblanc family. For many years, the real cause of his death is kept hidden from some members of the family, including his son David. The latter in turn starts his own family with his wife Marie. He lovingly raises his children Laurence and Frédéric, but deep within him harbours a persistent melancholy.

On the very same day of her second abortion, Marie Sophie’s attending the shower of her younger sister Maude, who’s seven months pregnant. As Maude gets all the attention deserved to a future mom, and makes sure everything’s perfect for the celebration, Marie Sophie, after the casual humiliating roundup, is tagged as the self-centered and insensitive woman.

After an hockey game in Lac St-Jean, the National climbs into their bus and begins the long ride from Roberval to Quebec City. On one of the sharp curves around Mount Apica, catastrophe strikes. The bus slams into the mountain and half the players dies. Now the team faces its greatest challenge: rebuilding.

영화는 피해자들의 피를 화면에 다루는 것을 피하기 위해 의도적으로 흑백으로 만들어졌다. 1989년 캐나다 몬트리올에 위치한 에콜 폴리테크 대학에서 일어난 사건을 페이크 다큐멘터리 형식으로 재현한 영화이다. 당시 마크 래핀이란 25세 남성이 범인이었는데, 45분 동안 그가 휘두른 총에 14명의 여학생들이 목숨을 잃었다. 실제로 유언장에 "페미니스트들이 싫다"라고 남기고 스스로 목숨을 끊었다. 그 사건 이후로 캐나다는 총기 소지법을 더욱 강화하였지만 캐나다인들이 겪은 충격은 매우 컸다고.. 이후에도 비슷한 사건이 계속 발생하여 캐나다인들에게 더욱 잊지 못할 사건이라고 한다. 영화는 총기사건을 다루고 있지만 소외받는 여성들을 대변하는 영화이기도 하다. 극중 살인범은 페미니스트가 온갖 편의를 누린다고 불만을 갖고 총기사건을 일으킨다. 하지만 영화 속에서 비추어지는 여성들은 편의를 누리는 것이 아니라 여성이기에 차별을 받는 존재로 그려진다. 아이러니하게도.. 사건이 일어나는 학교 또한 폴리테크닉, 즉 과학 기술 학교로 여성들의 비율이 매우 적은 편이다.