until March 13 at 11:59 pm.
Director: Caroline Monnet
Featuring: Pascale Bussières, Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, Jacques Newashis
Language: French, Anishinaabemowin subtitled in English
Runtime: 81 minutes
Rating: suitable for most audiences; content advisory: alcoholism
A multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker of Algonquin and French Canadian heritage, Caroline Monnet proves that she’s one of the most exciting new talents in Canadian cinema with this bold debut feature. Based on the original screenplay that won a prize at Cannes, Monnet’s drama stars Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (RHYMES FOR YOUNG GHOULS, KCFF14) as an Indigenous graduate student who returns to her reserve in northern Québec and discovers deep divides in her community over a referendum on the sale of alcohol on their land. Her experiences put her in conflict with Laura (Pascale Bussières), the bootlegger who’s long profited from the ban. Fueled by a mesmerizing score by Tanya Tagaq and Jean Martin, Monnet’s film is a bracing look at a place where past traumas create even greater turbulence in the present.