Article content continued

Les Films Séville, the country’s largest distributor, is handling the film, and Séville International is selling the film around the globe. My point is that a film like this gets noticed ’round these parts. When an auteur film makes its bow in the rest of Canada, in 99 cases out of 100, it comes and goes without anyone noticing it was ever on the screen in the 25th room at the local multiplex.

That Quebec art-film tradition — which stretches from Denys Arcand to Xavier Dolan — is what makes our film scene unique. We live in a world of cookie-cutter superhero movies, and it’s heartening to know the province remains a small but influential centre of resistance to that global film trend.

Émond makes slow-moving, thoughtful dramas that are often meditations on spirituality, mortality and the resilience of the human spirit. Yup, it’s a long way from Iron Man. Émond is very much in the tradition of great big-screen auteurs like Krzysztof Kieslowski and Roberto Rossellini, with a bit of the Dardenne brothers’ social realism thrown in for good measure.