Francine Ruel

During a harsh Montréal winter, an elementary-school class is left reeling after its teacher commits suicide. Bachir Lazhar, a charismatic Algerian immigrant, steps in as the substitute teacher for the classroom of traumatized children. All the while, he must keep his personal life tucked away: the fact that he is seeking political refuge in Québec – and that he, like the children, has suffered an appalling loss.

Five years after the death of their mother, Rémi, Mathieu and Christian have not changed much. Rémi is still as prolific and travels the world, multiplying his conquests, Mathieu leads a relatively peaceful life with his daughters and his wife and Christian lives off his brothers, hoping to find the perfect partner and finally settle down. When Rémi is kicked out of his house by his wife who discovers his infidelity and he suffers a panic attack, his brothers come to his rescue. Despite their different lifestyles, Rémi, Mathieu and Christian will try to help each other in order to form the united family that their mother would have wanted for them.

Michel Dumont is charged, judged and sentenced for a rape he denies ever having committed. While he serves his time in prison, Solange, who he fell in love with during his trial, embarks on the colossal task of proving his innocence and having the court rehabilitate him.

A working-class family fights a greedy developer for control of their neighborhood.

After the sudden death of her mother, Aurore Gagnon is abused by her disturbed step-mother as her town remains in the silence followed by her death. Based on a true story.

At a Montreal railway station, passengers are stranded because of a snowstorm. One of the stranded, Pierre-Paul, discovers a young schoolgirl on the brink of suicide. While he searches for someone to intervene, Chili, the young girl, disappears, only to reappear of her own accord after Pierre-Paul's fruitless search. This brief encounter leads to flashback revelations and interaction among the supporting characters also stranded in the storm.

Two women, a friendship. Two parallel love stories. Marianne has a passionate affair with Nino while the relationship of Lea and David is falling apart. While a couple is forming, another's becoming undone. Yet, the choice of the two friends remains the same: break up with the past and plunge into the unknown.

Two harum-scarums who think they are good stand-up comics try to make a career in showbiz, partly for the career, partly to seduce women. They try alternatively the scene, a movie set and TV. They only succeed in making a fool of themselves

In a style evocative of Fellini at his most surreal, this bizarre French Canadian fantasy follows the romance between a young filmmaker and a bearded lady from a local circus during the 1960s. The story begins in a contemporary theater where a projectionist describes, to movie director Rex Prince, the ghostly spirit that seems to be haunting his film. The story then races backward to the 1960s when a half-mad, idealistic Rex was busily making his first film, a Marxist tract depicting poverty in Montreal. Edouard Dore, a well-connected editor works with him and it is he who takes Rex to a carnival late one night to meet the performers in a freakshow. The first person Rex meets is Le Grand Zenon, a hulking one-eyed fellow with the amazing ability to use his eye to project movie images on a screen with neither a projector nor film.

Two children find themselves trapped in their school, the day before Christmas Eve. Their vigilance and resourcefulness are no match for the locked doors, barred windows and the snowstorm that, by causing a power outage, deprives them of light and heat. Worried, frozen, hungry, they confront each other, support each other, console each other in order to overcome their fear. More than courage, it is the discovery of solidarity that will allow them to emerge stronger from this journey to the end of the night.

A TV film staging of Michel Tremblay's play "Sainte Carmen de la Main" by André Brassard.

No synopsis available yet.

Marie, incapable of choosing between three marriage proposals, decides to give up. Circumstances mean that the three men meet. Far from being hostile, Stéphane, Fabrice and Paul console each other....

Montreal, 1904. Giuseppe and Ninetta own a boarding house where they welcome their fellow Sicilians. One day, as he comes to the defence of one of his boarders, Giuseppe accidentally kills Theo, his French Canadian best friend’s son-in-law. This drama depicts the tensions between people from different ethnic backgrounds and their life-changing impact. Based on a true story, 'The Saracen Woman' paints a portrait of Italian immigration to Quebec and the affinities and conflicts that arose from the clash of two different cultures.

No synopsis available yet.

Soho, an aspiring young woman of about 30, lives on the fringe with all those who, like her, believe that one day they will be a famous writer, a star dancer or a famous director. While waiting for that day, they take up yoga, positive thinking, or various forms of electronic macramé. One hot summer evening, Soho meets 18-year-old Choubie, the other generation with a bright future ahead of her. At 102o, in the shade, in a suburban basement, Soho realizes that she is no longer young, almost poor, and that meditation has not opened the doors of any paradise, even earthly.

In the early 1940's, Canada is a country at war and Florentine is a young woman, from a very poor family, looking for love. She meets two suitable men, a nice soldier from a good and wealthy family, and an ambitious self-centered engineer. She must decide whether she wants to follow her head or her heart...

A government ministry's fast-rising head of security asks a shadowy fixer, Meursault, to steal a bag from an armored truck. Meursault goes to Théo, a former night club owner, in prison for two years on false charges, who's being released in exchange for information about Montreal's underworld. Théo agrees to steal the bag for money and safe passage to the US for himself and his son Robin. Théo brings in two helpers, Gilder, ex-con and set designer, and Roxanne, Gilder's friend, a tough-minded petty thief. Their elaborate plan blows up when a guard, Marcel, takes his responsibilities too seriously. What happens to father and son? Will any of the thieves escape?

A young girl who is being abused at home runs away to the seamy side of Montreal where she makes friends with a prostitute who helps her to survive the urban jungle.

The true identity of an undercover RCMP narcotics agent is discovered by the criminals he is investigating and his family pays the price.