Refusing to return to Montreal with her pimp, Nina (Nahéma Ricci) convinces Kevin (Frédéric Millaire Zouvi) to take her back to the hunting camp where a bachelor party took place. At the chalet, the young woman with an impetuous temperament is welcomed by Kevin’s friends Bernard (Bruno Marcil), the future groom LP (Alexandre Landry), Philippe (Marc Beaupré) and Claude (Maxime Genois).
Clan leader Bernard then explains to her that she will have to submit to certain rules to be accepted by the pack. While Nina learns to hunt, Kevin brings back to the chalet Doudos (Noubi Ndiaye), an undocumented immigrant who does not speak French. From then on, she understands that her status has just changed within the group of men.
In Hunting dayset in northern Quebec, screenwriter, director and producer Annick Blanc draws inspiration from a painful personal experience that she transforms into a daring sylvan huis clos where she explores male toxicity and cognitive diversion. Both through the dynamics between the characters and the connection they develop with the territory, as well as the filmmaker’s ability to juggle different genres, Hunting day evokes both The Luminous Beastby Pierre Perrault, Deliveranceby John Boorman, Vic+Flo saw a bearby Denis Côté, Lucy Grizzli Sophieby Anne Émond, and… Alienby Ridley Scott.
Although she concretely anchors her universe in the boreal forest, Annick Blanc transforms it into a place that is by turns anxiety-provoking, organic and marvelous thanks to the contribution of Vincent Gonneville as director of photography, Peter Venne as music and Suzel D. Smith as artistic director. In doing so, the filmmaker allows herself some surprising dreamlike passages, cheerfully blurring the boundaries between dream, reality and intoxication.
While she sketches a metaphor for Quebec society, where she forces the viewer to question sexism and xenophobia, Annick Blanc enjoys multiplying the false leads. Thus, each character, especially Nina, does not act as ordinary mortals would. And this, until the striking conclusion of this story where we do not get lost in explanations, the filmmaker favoring brief but meaningful dialogues.
Framing her actors closely, capturing their breathing and the slightest movement of their facial muscles, Annick Blanc masterfully directs a high-caliber cast. In his first film role, musician Noubi Ndiaye proves to be as enigmatic as can be alongside Nahéma Ricci at the height of her art and Bruno Marcil imposing himself with natural authority.
In just three short films (In the middle of nowhere else, Turn Off Before Living And The color of your lips), Annick Blanc has managed to find a distinctive signature. In doing so, she has also demonstrated that she is a voice to follow in the Quebec cinematographic landscape. Hunting dayhis first feature film, co-produced with his faithful accomplice Maria Gracia Turgeon, from Midi la nuit, is indisputable proof of this.
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Psychological thriller
Hunting day
Annick Blanc
With Nahéma Ricci, Bruno Marcil, Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi
1 h 20
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