Posted at 11:30 a.m.
“He took me by the throat”, “he strangled me”, “he broke my life”. As you can imagine, Carole Laganière’s latest documentary is not gay. It’s heavy. It’s hard. And that hurts.
To run away fits here into what is starting to look like a trend, in terms of speaking out against violence against women on the big screen (after I salute you bitchstill in theaters, as well as the controversial The perfect victimlast year).
The director, twice winner of the Best Canadian Documentary Award at the Hot Docs (bride of life in 2002, then A roof, a violin, the moon, in 2003), spent long months in a women’s shelter. She followed them in their daily life. Filmed (for the most part with their faces uncovered, bravo for the infinite courage) during their workshops, frankly questioned. With modesty and sensitivity. And these have not paraded, but open up frankly (although painfully) and each in turn. Without filter, they tell their story, the blows, the shame, the feeling of guilt, too. Especially with their children. It’s repetitive. But it spanks.
On the scenes that look like reports in the strict sense, shot in a rather traditional way, are also superimposed more aesthetic images, in black and white, on a background of dramatic music. We sometimes see one of the protagonists swimming in a pool, sometimes another running in a forest. The sound and images of the wind in the leaves add a touch of dramatic tension, to mark certain chosen moments of emotion. It doesn’t have to be subtle. But the allegory works. And the emotion is magnified.
Speaking of aesthetics, the film begins and ends with the words of a work by Franco-Syrian poet Maram al-Masri (read by Caroline Néron), Barefoot souls : “I saw them, their faces with camouflaged bruises…”
No, “they” are not just lost girls. Completely the opposite. In the lot (and there are many, women presented here, perhaps even too many?), a worker from the health network, in a helping relationship, on top of the market…
Fortunately, through the tissues and the fear, the documentary also features several notable scenes of joy, a child playing figurines here, women dancing in the dark there. And despite some lengths, it is on this saving sorority that the film ends. On a note of hope, what. Because it is needed.
Documentary
To run away
Carole Laganiere
Indoors