New Quebec | A helping hand with humility ★★★½

Sophie and Mathieu go to Schefferville to settle the estate of the chalet of Sophie’s father, a former miner in the region. There, Sophie finds Réjean, her uncle, also a former miner. But when a tragic event involving Réjean occurs on the spot, the trip takes an unexpected turn.

Stuck longer than expected in Schefferville, Sophie (Christine Beaulieu) and her husband, Mathieu (Jean-Sébastien Courchesne), are forced to see the mess left to the Innu and Naskapi by their ancestors, 40 years after the mine closed. deserted the region. Sarah Fortin’s first fiction feature, an intimate drama whose story revolves around the perceptions of the characters, asks an essential question: how can we repair the wrongs suffered by Aboriginal people in Quebec?

The director’s camera lands sensitively on the surroundings of Schefferville and Matimekush-Lac John, testifying to a sincere love for these vast expanses of the North Shore. The film is a real immersion on the outskirts of the 55^and parallel, which passes skilfully from micro to macro – the images of the territory contrast with the intimate dialogues and the scenes of proximity which come to accentuate the impression of camera.

At the crossroads of genres, the film recalls both the direct cinema of Michel Brault and the poetry of Joséphine Bacon. Abandoned houses and mine holes, like scars, evoke the history of the territory, introduced briefly by a segment of archive images which opens the film, thus anchoring the story in reality.

In the role of Sophie, Christine Beaulieu delivers the captivating and touching game that we already know her. The great discovery: Jean-Luc Kanapé, non-professional actor recruited by Sarah Fortin in Sept-Îles for the role of Jean-Louis. Even if he had no acting experience, he has an astonishing credibility and interprets this predominant role with sobriety.

New Quebec is an outstretched hand with humility, a film that depicts relations between natives and non-natives with realism and without rose-colored glasses, but which does not fail to show what can be beautiful in the encounter. Without ever falling into high-profile drama, Sarah Fortin offers, through the reactions of her characters, food for thought regarding the role of non-Aboriginals in reconciliation.

Indoors

Drama

New Quebec

Sarah Fortin

With Christine Beaulieu, Jean-Sebastien Courchesne, Jean-Luc Kanapé

1:37 a.m.

★★★½