Norburg | A real suspense ★★★½

Although indelibly inscribed in the collective unconscious of Quebec, the Norbourg affair still remains a story which, except for people in the business community, borrows from the memory of somewhat vague contours. Of course, the images of Vincent Lacroix are still fresh in memory. But beyond the vision of this bandit with a tie leaving the courthouse piteously after having been sentenced for having ruined the lives of hundreds of investors, what exactly remains?

Marc-Andre Lussier
The Press

This is the question that screenwriter Simon Lavoie and filmmaker Maxime Giroux ask in their feature film, inspired by real events. By plunging into the history of the greatest financial scandal that Quebec has ever known, the two creators first of all do a duty of memory, but they also evoke – and question – the state of mind of a society whose stocks quickly changed to meet performance and economic growth objectives at all costs. With the risk of skidding they cause along the way. At the center of this story are two individuals for whom the lure of easy money has the effect of a hard drug.

There is Lacroix, of course, to whom François Arnaud lends a poisonous charm. But also, and this is where the artisans of norbourg favor an interesting narrative axis, Éric Asselin (excellent Vincent-Guillaume Otis). Unknown to the public, never convicted by the courts, he is the one who, armed with his knowledge acquired as an investigator for the Securities Commission (now the Autorité des marchés financiers), pulled the strings allowing his new boss , of whom he became the right arm, to fraudulently derive profits from unfortunate investors.

A real suspense

Spectators who know little about the world of finance, or have little interest in it, will sometimes find it difficult to understand the complexity of the mechanisms put in place by fraudsters, which must necessarily be explained, but the artisans of this film will on the other hand have had the intelligence to build their story as a real suspense.

Because beyond a story that will certainly serve as a warning to those who tend to blindly entrust their savings to smooth talkers, norbourg is, above all, a cinema film.

The staging by Maxime Giroux, a filmmaker who, after works like Felix and Meira and The great darkness, ventures for the first time in the realization of a feature film intended for a wider audience, is entirely put at the service of history. And proves to be extremely effective. Thanks to precise editing, to images (signed Sara Mishara) expressing the coldness of these places where financial issues are brewing and to a musical score (composed by Philippe Brault) which, without insisting too much, contributes to the heavy and anxiety-provoking character of this story, the filmmaker offers a financial thriller as it has rarely happened until now in Quebec.

Add to the solid performances of the two main actors that of Christine Beaulieu. In the role of an agent of the Securities Commission who intends to find proof of the dubious schemes of the duo of crooks, the actress is, once again, impeccable.

That said, the biggest thrill of this film probably comes at the very end, when we realize that, nearly two decades later, investors big and small are still just as vulnerable.

In the running for six Iris trophies at the next Gala Québec Cinéma, norbourg is currently showing.

Indoors

Thriller

norbourg

Maxime Giroux

With Francois Arnaud, Vincent-Guillaume Otis, Christine Beaulieu

1:59

★★★½