Country: Canada

I’ve Loved You So Long

In Claudel’s story of estrangement from society, Juliette (Scott Thomas) has served a term in prison, we can guess this much from her institutionalised appearance in the opening sequences. Her younger sister Lea, (Zylberstein), offers her refuge as she makes her first steps in the outside world, yet they have not seen each other for…
Read more …
Incendies

Canadian Nawal Marwan has just passed away. The only people at the reading of her will are her twin adult children, Jeanne and Simon Marwan, and the executor, Nawal’s long-time employer and friend, notary Jean Lebel. The will contains many unusual requests, the most unusual being two sealed envelopes, one to be delivered by each…
Read more …
Monsieur Lazhar

In Montreal, an elementary school teacher hangs herself. Bachir Lazhar, a recent Algerian immigrant, then offers his services to replace her, claiming to have taught in his home country. Desperate to fill the position, the principal, Mme Vaillancourt, takes him at his word and gives him the job. He gets to know his students despite…
Read more …
Leave No Trace

A father and teenage daughter live off the grid in a huge forest environment in Oregon. Solitude is what they know and seek, yet loggers and patrols interrupt their escape from conventional society on an increasingly frequent basis. When social services intervene and insist on young Tom (Thomasin McKenzie) receiving an education, the shift to…
Read more …