In her feature-length debut, the author Claire Legendre is this stranger. The one who boards a boat to meet the central figure in her host country’s imagination: the river. The journey then becomes an open door to the inward, a path that leads to oneself. If many strive to tell it in all its splendor, here, it is a vast and desolate world. The boats that go down its course to the gulf, such as the Bella Desgagnés, are empty, and the further they go, the further they advance toward the abyss. This is how the author literally drifts to Anticosti Island. There, she meets modern castaways, people who decided to exit urban life in favor of isolating themselves, away from everything. Whether it’s in search of meaning or to escape temptation, they settle among the deers, where numerous shipwrecks litter the shoreline. If the river inspires artists and sojourners, it embodies in contrast, for those who live in these distant lands, an amalgamation of the harshness of the elements. The striking images, dominated by shades of grey, deserted roads, and austere conifers, unfold slowly to the sounds of Francis Mineau’s melancholy piano notes. The river’s history here is that of the isolated communities whose boats are the only points of contact with the rest of the world. This film is part of a multidisciplinary triptych alongside a novel and a play. The inaugural story allows the author to “create grandiose memories” and gives voice to those for whom the river rhymes with isolation. It is an uncompromising space.

Jean-Philippe Catellier
Programming and Broascasting Manager
Paraloeil

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