LOVE IN THE TIME OF CIVIL WAR
120 min, Fiction, Québec, Canada, 2014Directed byRodrigue Jean
Produced byCédric Bourdeau et Rodrigue Jean
LanguagesFrench, English
A hard-hitting work that, to paraphrase Jean Genet, gives a voice to the unexpressed.
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Press reviews
This is not a film for everyone. But if you are ready for a tough-as nails, in-your-face exploration of addiction, then you’ll be rewarded with a rigorous, thought-provoking piece of gritty filmmaking. Montreal Gazette Conceived during a series of writing workshops with Épopée collective, this film exposes the grim underbelly of the streets we walk everyday. McGill DailyFilm details
Synopsis
Alex, a young addict who still nurtures a few dreams, sells his body in Montréal’s Centre-Sud district. He’s flanked by Bruno, Simon, Jeanne, Éric and Velma, all of them caught in the same spiral of compulsion. Marginalized by society yet hostage to its market logic, they are the fallen angels of a dark and violent time. Ghosts stripped of past and future, they roam, buffeted by the whims of the eternal now — a journey they undertake in defiant solitude punctuated by bouts of fevered consumption. Yet their beauty somehow survives, rebellious amid the ruins. From one fix to the next, desire becomes a life raft, a port in the storm as their bodies, exultant, seek to avenge the humiliation to which they are condemned. Orphans of a wild tribe, they live and love, restless vagrants in the shadows of society’s comfort and indifference.
Credits
Direction : Rodrigue Jean
Screenplay : Ron Ladd
Image : Mathieu Laverdière et Étienne Roussy
Image editing : Mathieu Bouchard-Malo
Sound editing: Sylvain Bellemare
Sound : Yann Cleary et Luc Boudrias
Production : Cédric Bourdeau et Rodrigue Jean
With:
Alexandre Landry
Jean-Simon Leduc
Simon Lefèbvre
Catherine-Audrey Lachapelle
Ana Christina Alva
Éric Robidoux
Financial partners
SODEC
Téléfilm Canada
Film Factory
PRIM
Direction
Rodrigue Jean
Dance, theatre, film : director, scriptwriter and producer Rodrigue Jean has been active on numerous creative fronts. After studying biology, sociology and literature, he worked as a choreographer before making his first short film, La Déroute, in 1989. He went on with directing the documentary La voix des rivières (1995), which won the Telefilm Canada Award for Best Medium-length Canadian Film at the FICFA, and the short film La mémoire de l’eau (1996), which won an award at the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax. Then, he directed the critically acclaimed feature films Full Blast (Special Jury Citation, TIFF, 1999), and Yellowknife (critics’ choice for Best Québec Film of 2002). The documentary Living on the Edge (2005) paid tribute to his Acadian roots, focusing on the poetry of Gérald Leblanc. His 2007 documentary Men for Sale looked into male prostitution in Montréal. Lost Song, his third feature-length fiction, awarded Jean with the award for Best Canadian Feature at the 2008 TIFF. After Men for Sale, Jean launched Épopée, a group that has used cinema as an instrument for freedom and community. His most recent feature-length film, Love in the Time of Civil War (2014), resulted from his website Épopée’s writing workshops with sex-trade workers. Non-exhaustive Filmography Love in the Time of Civil War (2014 / 120 min) Men for Sale (2009 / 144 min) Lost Song (2008 / 108 min) Yellowknive (2002 / 120 min) Full Blast (1999 / 95 min)