La première bande-annonce d’Au nord d’Albany, long métrage signé Marianne Farley, se révèle intrigante. L’atmosphère y est tendue et laisse deviner un récit comportant bien des mystères.
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Mettant en vedette Céline Bonnier et Zeneb Blanchet, le film relate le parcours d’une mère et de sa fille, en fuite de quelque chose aux États-Unis, qu’une panne de voiture survenue près d’un minuscule village des Adirondacks force à faire une halte de quelques jours.
« Je dirais qu’il s’agit d’un drame familial à saveur de thriller, indique Marianne Farley. Il y a une part de mystère dans le récit, mais on évoque aussi beaucoup la rencontre entre des êtres humains, dont certains sont confrontés à eux-mêmes. »
En compagnie du coscénariste Claude Brie, la réalisatrice a laissé courir son imagination en s’inspirant d’un évènement anxiogène qu’elle a elle-même vécu il y a quelques années.
Sur la route du retour d’une visite que mes deux garçons et moi avions faite à mon frère, qui habite aux États-Unis, je suis tombée en panne, comme les personnages. Ce fut un peu une histoire d’horreur, car le temps qu’il a fallu pour faire réparer la voiture fut interminable.
Marianne Farley
« Quand je suis finalement rentrée, poursuit-elle, j’ai dit à Claude [Brie] that there was perhaps in this adventure the idea of a film. This feeling of being far from home, with your children, in full vulnerability, seemed to me very rich on a dramatic level. »
Facing yourself
This starting point could also have fed a story that tilted into horror, but the director did not wish to take this path.
“Through this story, I especially wanted to talk about incommunicability, escape, parenthood. North of Albany is the story of a mother who wants to save her daughter at all costs, and who, to do so, makes the worst possible choice, which is to flee with her. In doing so, she finds herself forced to face herself. Life sometimes means that we have no choice but to look ourselves squarely in the mirror. »
Photo Martin Tremblay, LA PRESSE archives
Director and producer Marianne Farley
The idea of embodying the character of the mother herself crossed her mind at the time of writing, but quickly faded.
“When the decision was made that I was going to take on the production of this film myself, it was clear in my mind that I would not play the character,” she explains. Whether on one side or the other of the camera, I really like this relationship between actor and filmmaker. And then, I had the privilege of working with Céline Bonnier. »
Marianne Farley also specifies that her cinema is strongly characterized by encounters. The three short films she has made so far, including Daisyfinalist for the Oscars in 2019 in the category of best short film, naturally led her to the production of this feature film, for which she also acts as co-screenwriter and co-producer.
“This film is situated in continuity, but as it is a feature film, with all that that implies, I have the impression of taking a new step,” she says. I have already experienced it as an actress, as a producer as well, but there, as a director, I am entering another reality. It’s very annoying and very exciting at the same time! »
Produced by Slykid & Slykid, and distributed by Maison 4:3, North of Albany also counts on the participation of Eliott Plamondon, Rick Roberts, Naomi Cormier, Kelly Depeault, Sean Tucker, Janet Land and Frédéric Pierre. This film will be released in Quebec on November 11.