April in Paris French and Francophone Film Festival – AND THE BIRDS RAINED DOWN

Director: Louise Archambault

2019, Canada, 127min., NR

Language: French with English subtitles

Cast: Andrée Lachapelle, Gilbert Sicotte, Rémy Girard

 

Celebrate April in Paris and join our final night reception at 7 pm, followed by the 8 pm screening of a brilliant and haunting Canadian film shot in Quebec’s awe-inspiring Montmorency Forest. Based on the novel by Jocelyne Saucier, it opens in the aftermath of a destructive wildfire, which sent three elderly men off the grid as near-hermits. But change is inevitable, as Ted (one of the three) dies, and the private life of the survivors is transformed by the arrival of two women. The first (played by acclaimed actor Andrée Lachapelle in her final role) is a fugitive who has spent her life confined in a psychiatric hospital. The other is a young photographer looking for Ted’s hidden paintings of the wildfire. But the recluses’ deep connection with nature isn’t threatened by death, love, or aging, but by the ongoing human damage to the Earth. “Without politics or judgment, the film asks us to cherish life in all its simple pleasures and wonders.” – Pat Mullen, Toronto International Film Festival review.