Renaud Després-Larose

Lucie, a PhD student without a work visa and plagued by insomnia, is trapped in a destructive affair with her thesis advisor while being pursued by a jealous ex. Seeking help from a reclusive shaman on the city’s edge, she meets Béatrice, a young woman as carefree as she is determined to help her.

The Barbarian believes he has only a few erections left before death. Cursed to a life in a thrift shop and haunted by family tragedy, he sets his sights on Marie, an alcoholic special-ed teacher. If he must go, he figures, he might as well go out in good company.

Raoul and Beatrice’s eyes meet in the Montreal metro. This sets off a chain of events that will affect the whole city. He's a rock star activist on a secret mission, she's a bohemian who wanders the streets at night, handing out books to the homeless. Every Thursday evening, she meets Constance and Eugène in their small candlelit apartment, for their weekly reading ritual. Constance broadcasts her live-sampled, politically conscious sound art on an independent radio station; Eugène has been working on a novel for years, whilst trying to shut himself off from the outside world. The three young friends all dream of their own poetic revolution, inspired by the situationists, on whom Raoul has modelled his persona.

Much of Godin’s purple, declarative dialogue is delivered at a breakneck pace, as though these verbally nimble actors are running lines at auctioneer-speed while simultaneously playing their intentions to the hilt. The film is an exercise in radical compression, its velocity integral to its comic effects, though all the rapid-fire yakking and spastically edited reverse-shot sequences lead to a wordless denouement in which Mésuline searches her pockets for a cigarette in a shot that’s hardly protracted yet still takes up about one-fifth of this taut little film’s runtime. Her pleasure in finally lighting up is fairly adorable.

Francis is a taciturn teenager unhappy with his life. Not wanting to stay with is mother, he lives in a foster home in the Laurentian countryside with is guardian, Brian. They spend their days building a bed for Camille, a young orphan soon to be joining them. But Francis wants more: he wants out. As fate would have it, he crosses paths with Bruno, a young gardener who decides to pass the night in the forest.

Koroviev, a police officer who teaches poetry in a brigade of police poets, is in search of a precious Bible annotated by Pierre Maheu, the captain of the St. Elias, a legendary ship. His quest leads him to befriend a young thief who introduces him to a mysterious woman named Coriandre.