Director of two short films that have been talked about until the Oscars, Marianne Farley has set the bar very high for her first feature film. After filming complicated by COVID, and a release postponed for the same reasons, North of Albany finally opens on Friday. Céline Bonnier is very fair in the skin of a single mother who flees to the United States with her children to protect her eldest, devoured by discomfort and a terrible secret.
North of Albany is not a very happy film, even if it is crossed by a glimmer of hope which springs from the maternal love, the unconditional love, at the center of this film. “An autumn film”, summarizes with humor Marianne Farley, less melancholy in interview than her first feature film.
We follow Annie (Céline Bonnier), who hastily leaves Montreal for the United States with her two children born to two different fathers: the tormented teenager Sarah (Zeneb Blanchet) and little Félix (Eliott Plamondon), a ray of sunshine in this rather gloomy picture. From the first minutes of the film, we suspect that young Sarah has committed a serious act that forces her mother, with whom she has a strained relationship, to flee with her to bring her to her father’s house in Florida.
“For me, it’s a film about flight. But I also wanted to show that the solution to all that is the encounters we have in life, which force us to face ourselves,” continues Marianne Farley, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Claude Brie.
In this fairly conventional scenario, the story really takes shape when the protagonists’ car breaks down in a remote village in the Adirondacks, where they will have no choice but to stop. This is where their path will cross that of the taciturn mechanic Paul (Rick Roberts), a single father who also hides a heavy secret, but who will allow the mother and her daughter to reconnect.
Pandemic shooting
At the beginning, North of Albany was actually supposed to be shot in the bucolic landscapes of New England, but COVID-19 forced Marianne Farley to retreat to the Monteregian countryside, since the border was closed. This is one of the many compromises that the director had to make on this shoot, which began in the fall of 2020, in the middle of the second wave of the pandemic.
“If we hadn’t been in a pandemic, I would have made a sequence shot, I would have done things differently, that’s for sure. I dare to hope that it is not seen in the film, but it is sure that it influenced my artistic choices ”, confides the one that we first knew as an actress.
Marianne Farley was not originally supposed to direct this film: she was rather approached for the leading role. But despite the harshness of the subject, she fell in love with this story in which it is about homosexuality, intimidation, suicide and even gun violence. Quickly, she chose to collaborate on the screenplay to make it her first film.
No pressure
This first feature film is one of the most anticipated Quebec films of the year among critics. His short film Daisy was nominated for an Oscar in 2019, while Frost made it to the Academy shorts in 2022. “I try not to focus on expectations. Otherwise, it’s too dizzying. I don’t make movies for recognition anyway. I make films because I have something to say”, specifies with humility Marianne Farley, who opted for a very sober direction.
The main actress of the film, Céline Bonnier, has only good words for her and keeps excellent memories of this set, despite the very difficult filming conditions due to the pandemic. “I really liked the writing, the dialogues. I liked the impulsiveness of my character, and his immaturity. I liked that it was his daughter who taught him how to live, ”says the actress, who is delighted to turn more and more with women in the production.
Among these women in Quebec who shine behind the camera: Marianne Farley, who is already working on a second feature film.