Justine can no longer hear her parents, both lawyers, bickering over a thousand and one everyday details. As the situation does not seem to want to be resolved, she goes candidly, but determined, to the Youth Division to ask for a divorce from the couple. A gesture that remains, of course, without follow-up. She will then use the end-of-year show to set up a Youth Court in which her father and mother, unaware of the fate that awaits them, will play the role of the accused.
First feature film for director, screenwriter and actress Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers, No chicane in my cabin offers an interesting perspective on divorce. Contrary to this tendency often read, heard or seen which invites the child characters to pick up the broken pots, Justine, played with aplomb by Charlotte St-Martin, takes a different path by wanting to put a radical end to this apparent conflict between her parents. . From this singular angle, Brodeur-Desrosiers and Maryse Latendresse – who is co-writing here – already made sure they had a catchy start. Told from the children, their microcosm, their vision of the world, with all the naivety that entails, the story is delivered with authenticity without any morality coming to obstruct the essence.
The floor is thus entirely given to the heroine and her gang, united around a common interest, namely the need to take part, to act, to anticipate blows. But also a lot that of putting an end to a situation that they did not choose. What Justine will also underline in front of the lady at the reception of the courthouse (Pierrette Robitaille), flabbergasted by such conviction and lucidity.
The success of the film is due first to this angle, but also to the group of young actors, who play with an enviable naturalness. Charlotte St-Martin — Justine, whose first name is one letter from the word “justice” — is surrounded by the charismatic Louka Amadeo Bélanger-Leos, who bursts onto the screen in the role of Guillaume, the bum with a tender heart, by Liam Patenaude, a gentle Théo who would do anything for Justine, by Charlie Fortier as Claudia, the heroine’s faithful friend, and by Simone Laperle, who plays Ernestine, a shy, rejected child who reveals herself throughout throughout the story. In the role of parents, Isabelle Blais (Julie) and Pierre-Luc Brillant (Martin), a couple in life as on screen, ensure a solid presence and reveal the flaws in their relationship with delicacy and verisimilitude.
light on childhood
The authenticity that emanates from the actors is supported by camera games oscillating between many close-ups and different shots that provide privileged access to the emotions of the characters. Pain, fear, love pass through these movements. At the top, this bird’s-eye view of Ernestine, when the children ask her to take part in the end-of-year show, or the close-up of the faces of Guillaume and Justine, prisoners under Martin and Julie’s bed. Proximity doesn’t lie. The places staged also testify to the world of young people: whether it is school, Justine’s room, the street in which they move on skateboards, everything is part of a desire to see the world from their telescope.
Some symbolic elements also add to the beauty of the whole. The yellow color haloes the luminous Justine. From the walls of her bedroom, to the polish on her fingernails, to her school bag, her sweater that reads el soh or even the heart-shaped sticker visible on the bench of the school bus, where a love story is revealed, yellow is everywhere around her. Symbol of light, this color embraces the flamboyant personality of the heroine.
The window, an important element of the film, also plays a key role in providing access to the intimacy of the scenes. Often used to exit or enter the different spaces, it returns at the very end, while a movement of the camera moves from one house to another, showing, from the outside, the children communicating with their parents. . In line with Miss C and Tales for all, No chicane in my cabin is an ode to the power of childhood, its candor and the hope of living better together.