You will never know | Paul is all alone

In the midst of a pandemic, an octogenarian confined in a room in a CHSLD has only one idea in mind: finding his lover.

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 5,000 CHSLD residents lost their lives. A large proportion of these elderly people died of hunger and thirst due to the lack of staff and caregivers. Written with Julie Roy, You’ll never knowby Robin Aubert, inspired by the cinema of Chantal Akerman, Roy Andersson and Aki Kaurismäki, cruelly takes us back to this not-so-distant era.

Confined in his room like the other residents of the CHSLD, the memories of a lifetime contained in a few drawers, Paul Vincent (Martin Naud, charismatic octogenarian in his first role on the screen) would like to see his lover again, moved a few floors upper. However, the staff, who struggle to bring meals and change the residents’ diapers, do not have the time to inquire about the latter’s fate. As the hours pass slowly, only a volunteer (Sarah Keita, luminous) and a concierge (Jean-Marie Lapointe, empathy incarnate) bring a little human warmth to Paul.

You’ll never know is both a painful and hopeful film where Robin Aubert does not hesitate to test the spectator’s patience. And this, from the long opening scene, where the sunlight gently enters Paul’s room, as if the filmmaker had wanted to make us feel the weight of time. As the man wakes up, all we hear is the coughing of a neighbor in the room, the ventilation system and the rumble of the morgue truck. The CHSLD as if you were there… or almost.

In this radical and daring proposal evoking the cinema of Pedro Costa (Forward, youth) and Robert Morin (Little Pow! Pow! Christmas), the director ofAt the origin of a cry and the screenwriter of the series Riders provide powerful evidence of the flaws in the health system. At the same time, they also pay tribute to the health personnel, who worked tirelessly at the risk of their own lives.

With its airs of an anticipation film, notably in this anxiety-provoking and chilling finale where Paul painfully advances towards his destiny, the film is nevertheless shot through with moments of grace that Robin Aubert was able to patiently capture, such as this scene where the character bursts into tears in the kind contact of the concierge. A perfect complement to the moving documentary by Denys Desjardins I placed my mother.

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Drama

You’ll never know

Robin Aubert

Martin Naud, Sarah Keita, Jean-Marie Lapointe

1:51 a.m.

7/10