Six Neorealist Portraits

A man visits his elderly handicapped father on Christmas Eve with the intention of putting him on trial for crimes against his family and then executing him.

Despite the fact that he is completely unrepentant about his crimes, when Regis Savoie's son asks to visit him, prison authorities grant permission for the boy to come. The thief and murderer (Gildor Roy) takes advantage of the moment of his son's arrival to steal a gun and take flight. He settles some old scores, gets together with his girlfriend, and heads for the hills, pursued by a detective who is not to be swayed in his efforts to follow and recapture him.

In the middle of the night, in the Québec countryside, all hell breaks loose as a black teenager is caught smashing a racially denigrating lawn ornament. Together the neighbours attend to justice against the vandal. Thorough the night there is mounting racism, fueled by alcohol, and violence. Le Nèg' opens the morning after when the police investigators arrive at the scene to take depositions.

Jeannot has Down’s Syndrome. Living in a claustrophobic suburban setting, he is treated like a child by his parents and denied any responsibilities of his own. Things change when a young woman named Pauline is hired to take care of Jeannot, and his world opens up beyond the restrictive one imposed upon him.

The Reception takes place in an isolated mansion on an island, but the host is mysteriously absent. A storm traps everyone inside, and the atmosphere turns sour when it is revealed, by way of a video, that each of the guests has a criminal past. A death ensues, and then another... the mansion quickly turns into a jail. Inspired by Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians.

Christophe agrees to be filmed by his roommate Stéphane, while he is searching for a meaningful engineering job. Since he voluntarily resigned his job when he was to be moved to quality control, he does not get unemployment benefits, and goes to classes on how to contest the decision.

A botched police raid on a crack house turns into a 36 hour long siege in which the junkies share their perspective to the cameraman of a reality program.

A well-respected plastic surgeon dedicated to helping patients with severe burns questions his career, his family…his perfect life and ultimately, his sanity when an encounter with a disgruntled patient triggers a psychological spiral no one can control.

Native Americans clash with the Canadian government as they struggle for independence in this factual Canadian drama set in Quebec during the summer of 1990. Eddie Laroche, a rebellious native leader spawned a national crises when he and his supporters declared the independence of Aki territory in a far-flung area of northern Quebec. He refused to negotiate without the presences of television cameras to record his people's plight. Jean Fontaine was the reporter assigned to the story and much of the film is told from his viewpoint. To reach Laroche's land, negotiators, government officials, and the film crew had to travel by boat. Fontaine is initially cynical and reluctant to do the story, but after he spends time on the boat interviewing it's passengers, his cynicism has dissolves and he realizes he is faced with the presentations of a terribly complex situation. His dilemma provides a main focus for the film.

Jean-Marc Phaneuf, an unmarried electrical engineer, travels to Burundi as a volunteer for the NGO Radio du Monde. He finds a country ruined by grinding poverty, famine, war, disease and appalling social inequality. At the same time, he meets a joyful, brave people hungry for happiness, knowledge and human dignity. The camera that becomes his personal diary also helps Jean-Marc expose the shaky, ineffective workings of NGOs. His investigations turn up a few praiseworthy examples of international cooperation, but on the whole he finds himself drawn to a terrible, inescapable conclusion: humanitarian aid is a utopian mirage. After falling victim to an attack and losing whatever ideals he still had, Jean-Marc becomes entangled in an impossible relationship. He is ultimately forced to leave Africa in disgrace.

Jean-Paul is a public servant, tired of toiling at his soul-destroying job. As a writer, he feels out of touch with the times and longs for inspiration.

Unfairly dismissed from his duties for trying to catch a white-collar bandit, Jean-Guy Simard leaves the tax office with one fixed idea: to get revenge by making a video on the rules of tax avoidance. From Geneva to Bermuda, his strange investigation takes the form of a Dadaist and irreverent comedy, in which he plays all the roles at once, throughout an exposé where the power of money gradually confronts him with his own demons.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, six people become suspicious about a stranger in their neighborhood.

Little did this pretty brunette know when she applied for a babysitting job that her employer was an artist and that everything at his place differed from the outside world. What struck her the most was to find out that her boss had shrunk his wife and kept her in the fridge in order, as he said, to keep her safe from a hostile world!

In the early 2000s, following her return from a long stay abroad, Amélie invites her friends, Maude and Pascale, to a cottage. In a disturbing and isolated forest, Amélie tries to reconnect with her friend Maude, while the rivalry between her and Pascale takes a dark turn.

A young father takes a baby coyote as payment for an old debt, gives it to his son, then drags them both along on a drug deal meant to pay for the boy’s hockey season.