What strikes first in this new film by Guy Édoin is to what extent the filmmaker, who is on his fourth fiction feature, manages to translate on screen in a realistic way the environment he describes. , while surreptitiously adding a surreal touch to it, which fits perfectly into its narrative.
In a border country, life is fundamentally different, as are the issues. The director of swampswhich turned Borders on her own farm, illustrates it from the outset by showing Diane (Pascale Bussières) who takes her hunting rifle without any hesitation to directly confront Sunday hunters who have had the nerve to shoot a deer on a territory belonging his family.
True to his approach, Guy Édoin offers portraits of strong women, earthlings in this case, who, despite dissension and disagreements, instinctively know how to come together in times of crisis. That’s what Carmen (Christine Beaulieu) and Julie (Marilyn Castonguay) do when their sister Diane, who lives with her daughter (Mégane Proulx), begins to descend into paranoia after losing a loved one in an accident.
It is as if the house the family has lived in for nearly 200 years is inhabited by the spirits of those who have lived there. The situation becomes serious to the point that even their mother (Micheline Lanctôt), with whom relations are strained, comes back from Florida to join her daughters. A sequence with the grandmother (Béatrice Picard) completes the picture of this sorority.
Even if the revelation of what is actually happening can be guessed quite easily, the fact remains that Borders, which takes the form of a thriller nourished by true anecdotes that occurred in the filmmaker’s family, stands out thanks to this way of exploring the notion of territory in all its forms, physical and mental. Marked by a remarkable performance by Pascale Bussières, who here holds one of her finest roles, Borders adds a beautiful stone to the singular work that Guy Édoin is building.
Drama
Borders
Guy Edoin
With Pascale Bussières, Christine Beaulieu, Micheline Lanctôt
1:34
Indoors