“My name is L’Ouragan, and remember that!” » There is no doubt that film buffs will remember young Delphis – aka The Hurricane – after meeting him in the second feature film by Ara Ball, director of When love digs a hole (2018).
This eleven-year-old, who grew up in a dysfunctional family residing in a disadvantaged area of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, in the early 1990s, is the star of Hurricane FYTadapted from the cult 2013 short film Hurricane Fuck You Tabarnak ; and it’s a safe bet that it will melt hearts, even the hardest.
Played by newcomer Justin Labelle – who takes over from Luka Limoges – Delphis is expelled from school. With a father (Patrice Dubois) in prison, a drug addict mother and victim of domestic violence (Larissa Corriveau) and a little brother in the care of child protection services, the boy boils with anger in the face of an unjust and merciless world. , in which he does not find his place. Armed with a lightning bolt on his headband, his middle finger brandished high, he takes off, abandoning his mother to her distress and determined to take charge of his life.
With the police and the DPJ on his heels, the one who now calls himself “The Hurricane” walks the alleys and sidewalks and navigates from meeting to meeting in search of money, food and shelters to spend the night. He is finally rescued by Ben (Nico Racicot), who takes him to the Cave, an old attic occupied by a group of endearing punks who choose marginality. At their side, he rediscovers the meaning of the word “family” and gradually learns to recognize his value and that of others, beginning a long process of reconstruction which, far from being agreed, is greatly mistreated throughout the story.
Lulled – so to speak – by the ardor of Marjo and the abrupt and rebellious demands of punk rock groups, Hurricane FYT is like its characters: rebellious, daring and deeply human.
Ara Ball made the wise choice to offer more depth to the protagonist presented in his short film, explaining the socio-economic, emotional context bathed in great violence in which he grows up, a context having repercussions on behavior, decisions, impulsiveness and rage boiling inside a child for whom the viewer can ultimately develop a lot of empathy.
However, this cannot be done without certain shortcuts. Let us cite for example the sequences in which Delphis breaks the fourth wall to speak directly to the camera, which, although we understand the intention – that of giving voice to a young person to whom it is never given —, are often overwritten, too explicit, leaving little room for interpretation.
As in the short film, the filmmaker also transposes the fugue of The Ouragan into black and white, a choice which reinforces the dreamlike aspect of the story and reminds us that these larger-than-life characters, looking like sad clowns, are first from the fantasized vision of a child.
Where Ara Ball excels is in showing the plurality of street experiences. Thus, although we would have liked the beautiful band of misfits who inhabit the cave to be more in-depth – notably because each of them has great cinematographic potential – we perceive at first glance that their journey, their environment and their traumas differ, as do their modes of survival.
Young Justin Labelle has undeniable charisma and he does relatively well with street language that is probably unfamiliar to him. It is supported by a thunderous cast, which provides a good dose of poetry to an often harsh and merciless environment.