The best François Papineau’s movies

The year is 1952, in Quebec City. Rachel (16), unmarried and pregnant, works in the church. Filled with shame, she unburdens her guilt to a young priest, under the confidentiality of the confessional. In the present year of 1989, Pierre Lamontagne has returned to Quebec to attend his father's funeral. He meets up with his adopted brother, Marc, who has begun questioning his identity and has embarked on a quest for his roots that would lead them to the Quebec of the 1950s. Past and present converge in a complex web of intrigue where the answer to the mystery lies.

Isabelle Brodeur embarks on a journey to Vietnam, her adopted daughter’s birthplace. Throughout this stunningly beautiful journey, Isabelle discovers her daughter’s country through the eyes of the woman who brought her into this word.

On a dairy farm in the Eastern Townships, in the middle of a drought and while the land is parching, a drama will disrupt the life of the Santerre family. Confronted to each other they will have to learn to forgive.

1949. Brother Jean, a progressive teacher and passionate amateur archaeologist, plans to conduct excavations with his students in order to prove the presence of a Viking settlement along the shores of the St-Lawrence River.

The movie chronicles the long, futuristic voyage of a team of Québécois space explorers looking for a planet capable of sustaining life, in the year 2034, after the destruction of the ozone layer through excessive human pollution, prompting the need for a new planet to welcome humankind. The seven crew members venture outside their own galaxy to explore other star system in search of a new planet large enough to sustain 6 billion people. The few habitable planets encountered are ultimately abandoned either because they are already occupied (emphasizing the wrongdoing of invading other civilizations and cultures), or because upon closer inspection they are found to have other problems (cow-sized mosquitoes, high radiation levels, dog overpopulation, unsuitable living environment, ...).

The detective Maud Graham hides her sensibility behind the image of a strong and independant woman. She frequently offers her hospitality to a 16-year-old prostitute, Grégoire, a young man who became her friend. But when the teenager decides to invite a 12-year-old boy who is running away from home, Maud is near illegality. In addition, the detective has to deal with a serial killer who had already killed and mutilated many women. When she understands that the killer is very intelligent and organized, she elaborates a strategy to arrest him. There starts a dangerous game where the two teenagers that Graham is protecting will be implied. The killer is getting closer, revealing more and more of his madness.

In this tough French-Canadian drama, two outsiders -- one who works with the law, another who lives outside it -- come together with unfortunate consequences. Linda (Sylvie Moreau) is a devoted single mother who will do anything to support her five-year-old daughter, Charlotte (Sarah Lecompte-Bergeron). Unfortunately, a lot of what Linda does best isn't exactly legal, such as luring well-to-do men into the park and then mugging them. One night, Linda is trying to coax a visitor from America into the shadows when the situation starts to go wrong. Meanwhile, Ghislain (Gabriel Arcand) is a shy, lonely fellow who works at the morgue and likes to listen to the blues late at night. In time, we discover that Linda and Ghislain met at one time, leading to an ugly encounter for both of them.

The sleepy town where Léo lives doesn’t offer her much chance of self-fulfilment. Extricating herself from her mother’s influence and her constricting environment isn’t easy for the frustrated young woman, yet happiness might be close at hand. A stylistically precise, pop-impressionistic film about a girl’s quest to find out who she really is, featuring the captivating Karelle Tremblay in the lead role.

In 1863, a group of snow-bound travelers invokes the devil, who gives them a flying canoe for them to go home. When one of them finds his wife about to die in labor, he makes a pact with the devil to save her and his newborn daughter Liza. He then cheats the devil of his prize by sacrificing himself. 25 years later, Liza wants to marry her beloved Jos, who has to go away to a remote logging camp to earn money to save his farm, but the devil is determined to ruin her happiness.

Jimmy is trapped in a spiral of street drug addiction and withdrawal. One day, Jimmy is forced to get back in contact with his family. The pariah’s return to the pack reawakens old demons in his elder brother Nathan.