Return to tiff.’s home page

Route 132

Route 132

Louis Bélanger

  • Country: Canada
  • Year: 2010
  • Language: French
  • Producer: Fabienne Larouche, Denise Robert, Michel Trudeau, Daniel Louis
  •  
  • Screenplay: Louis Bélanger, Alexis Martin
  • Runtime: 113
  • Programmes:

A powerful drama directed by acclaimed veteran Louis Bélanger, Route 132 focuses on a man who loses a loved one and embarks on a journey in an attempt to rediscover his roots and come to terms with his grief.

screening times

    • Friday September 10
    • 9:15:00 PM
    • SCOTIABANK THEATRE 3
    • Sunday September 12
    • 9:00:00 AM
    • VARSITY 7

Note: indicates Premium Screening.

official description

Veteran director Louis Bélanger, one of Quebec’s most consistently intriguing filmmakers (best known in English Canada for Post Mortem and Gas Bar Blues), returns to the Festival with Route 132, a powerful and affecting examination of grief and rebirth. After a tragic and devastating loss, middle- aged professor Gilles runs into Bob, a childhood friend who now hustles sketchy goods for a living and sometimes commits small-time crimes. Bob and Gilles get to talking and consuming large quantities of beer. Soon enough, Bob convinces the near suicidal Gilles to head to the countryside to rob a bank. Unable to cope, Gilles agrees and embarks on a journey through rural Quebec which, perhaps inadvertently, becomes a journey through his and his family’s past.

The seminal films of Québécois cinema have generally considered the country as both real and metaphorical, but Gilles and Bob’s odyssey is far more literal than figurative. And loss and grief are common experiences. At a seniors’ home, Bob winds up in a violent dispute with an orderly who seems unconcerned that his charges are living in unsafe and humiliating conditions. There’s also a strange encounter with a group of former soldiers, who are in the midst of commemorating the suffering they’ve encountered in their travels. (Their tribute bears an eerie resemblance to the whale hunt in Pierre Perrault and Michel Brault’s classic Pour la suite de monde.)

Bélanger both critiques and celebrates the traditional valourization of the countryside in Québécois society (and cinema) while pointing out that the old rural Quebec is now a myth, a thing of the past. The soldiers that he and Bob encounter are nothing if not global citizens. As the film proceeds, it becomes clear that Gilles and Bob’s opportunities for redemption and rebirth lie less in the past than within themselves. With Route132, Bélanger again shows us why he’s one of Quebec’s most respected filmmakers.

Steve Gravestock

director bio

Louis Bélanger was born in Beauport, Quebec. While studying at the Université du Québec à Montréal, he co-directed several short films with Denis Chouinard, and with Bruno Baillargeon he co-directed Les Galeries Wilderton (91). He then directed for television before making his feature film debut with Post Mortem (99), which won several internationals prizes, along with a Jutra Award for best first feature and a Genie for best original screenplay. His other films include Lauzon Lauzone (co-director, 01), Gas Bar Blues (03), Le génie du crime (06), The Timekeeper (09) and Route 132 (10).

full credits

Principal Cast: François Papineau, Alexis Martin, Sophie Bourgeois, Andrée Lachapelle, Gilles Renaud, Janine Sutto
Producer: Fabienne Larouche, Denise Robert, Michel Trudeau, Daniel Louis
Cinematographer: Pierre Mignot
Editor: Claude Palardy
Sound: Marie-Claude Gagné, Marcel Chouinard, Luc Boudrias
Music: Benoît Charest, Guy Bélanger
Production Designer: Emmanuel Fréchette

Canadian Distributor: Alliance Films  
International Sales Agent: FunFilm Distribution Inc.
Production Company: Aetios Productions Inc./Cinémaginaire Inc.
.
Shopping Cart
 

    Share This

    • Digg
    • Share

    Like This

    film stills and media

     
    Pause Slideshow