Snow is falling in large flakes on Mount Royal. Scattered, streetlights pierce the night, drawing clear beams in the surrounding darkness. The panorama takes on a magical dimension, also nostalgic: undoubtedly the effect of black and white. This last quality – nostalgia – permeates Prayer for a lost mitten, Best Canadian Documentary Award at the Hot Docs Festival. With patience and sensitivity, Jean-François Lesage leads people who have lost a banal object to open up to the larger question of loss.
After the magnificent prologue, which also announces a superb finish from start to finish, the film moves to the side of the lost and found counter of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM). We come across a series of women and men of all ages and backgrounds who have come here in the hope of recovering a scarf, a handbag, a wallet, an Opus card, a telephone …
Then comes this passage where an elderly lady, after having rummaged in vain in a box containing pairs of glasses, undertakes to inform the clerk of her state of health, of this imminent eye operation … The lady may have lost her glasses, but what she obviously lacks is someone to talk to. Very simple, this moment moves and informs as to what will happen next.
In that Jean-François Lesage was quick to follow some of these people to their homes. After discussing the lost object, participants gradually open up to the most important thing they have lost. Loss of motor skills, loss of a loved one, loss of this capacity for wonder which characterizes childhood… The confidences are extremely varied and allow the filmmaker to paint marvelous portraits.
The anecdotal and the universal
We think, for example, of this woman that we first see looking for a toque at the STM counter. “Well, it’s never just a toque,” we say to ourselves. Once in the woman’s apartment, we learn that this tuque, she had knitted it herself, and that it suited her perfectly. She insists on the word. And suddenly, we sympathize, we understand.
Later, she remembers this long and happy relationship to which she had to resolve to end for reasons, again, which arouse empathy and concern.
In an interview, Jean-François Lesage confided: “People each time gave a little of their story, because behind the object, there is always a story. “And to add:” I sincerely believe that the word of each one of us is interesting as long as we linger on it. ” With Prayer for a lost mitten, the filmmaker accomplishes something very special: he starts from the anecdotal to better access the universal.
Despite its sometimes serious content, the film is deeply beautiful and deeply human and, like its lampposts on Mount Royal, throws a little light into the surrounding grayness.