Modernaire

In the dead of winter, 18-year-old Chloe runs away from Montreal and hitch-hikes to Tadoussac, a small Quebec tourist village. In exchange for a room, she works at the local hostel, like many other young travelers. But Chloe is also secretly searching for someone.

As a civil war shakes the Quebec province of Canada, Valerie is the sole survivor of a mass execution where her boyfriend is killed. Years later, she’s in a close relationship with her new partner, Gabriel. At the Long Term Care Center where she works as an orderly, she befriends Jeanne, an erudite and funny woman, dealing with an important physical handicap. Mixing realism and worrying strangeness, The Laugh presents a humane exploration of the survivor’s syndrome, the grieving process, the distance of time, the power of love, and the joy of being alive.

Would-be filmmaker Sophie left Africa for Canada as a child. After graduating, she films the daily doings as part of a summer job at a fair. When pointing the camera at herself, she reveals painful secrets from the past.

When his 5-year-old daughter is raped and murdered and his wife commits suicide as result, Marc is led to reconsider his personal proscription of revenge.