Telefilm Canada announces its funding decisions - 11 French-language feature film projects are selected

MONTREAL, Dec. 16 /CNW Telbec/ - Telefilm Canada is delighted to announce that 11 feature films, two of which are Canadian majority coproductions, can move forward thanks to various production programs under Telefilm Canada's Canada Feature Film Fund.

"We are proud to support experienced teams and renowned, talented filmmakers as well as promising new talent," said Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada. "I am confident that these projects will touch large audiences here and around the world."

"The projects presented in this first round demonstrated a high-quality and maturity," said Michel Pradier, Director of Project Financing at Telefilm Canada. "I am pleased to notice a consistency in the number of Canada-majority coproductions submitted to us - demonstrating the notoriety of our producers and filmmakers who bring their unique perspectives to universal subjects."

It should be noted that two of the chosen projects are receiving financial support through a performance envelope. The French-language projects selected for the first round of 2011-2012 under the Canada Feature Film Fund, selective component, are the following (in alphabetical order):

Esimésac - Drama/fantasy produced by Loraine Richard and Luc Martineau (Cité-Amérique), written by Fred Pellerin and directed by Luc Picard. Esimésac tells the story of a man who encourages the residents of St-Élie de Caxton to take part in a community garden project. However, his plans are thwarted by the imminent arrival of the railway in the village. The entire population of the village chooses instead to help the blacksmith make rails for the long-awaited train. But plans change and the railway goes to a neighbouring village. The residents of St-Élie, who had neglected to grow food for the months ahead, now find their larders empty come winter.

Inch'Allah - Canada-France coproduction (majority Canadian). Drama produced by Luc Déry and Kim McCraw (micro_scope), and written and directed by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette. In a makeshift street clinic in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, Chloé, a young obstetrician from Quebec working under the supervision of a French doctor, Michaël, helps pregnant women. Between checkpoints and the Separation Wall, Chloé comes face to face with war, and with those who are affected by it: Rant, a patient for whom Chloé develops a deep affection; Faysal, Rant's elder brother, a dedicated resistance fighter with whom Chloé falls in love; Safi, the youngest in the family, a child broken by war who dreams of flying away, across borders; and Meret, a young female soldier who lives next door to Chloé in an apartment building in Israel. Chloé's encounter with these people and their lives takes her on an adventure into territories of intimacy as well as landscape. An adventure during which she loses her bearings, becomes uprooted, falls. Some voyages have the power to disrupt and to transform. For Chloé, Inch'allah is one such voyage.

Komona - Drama produced by Pierre Even and Marie-Claude Poulin (Item 7), and written and directed by Kim Nguyen. In Africa, 14-year-old Komona is expecting a child. For two years, she has been waging war with a Kalashnikov, forced to fight with a rebel army. The only person who helps and listens to her is the Magician, a 15-year-old boy who loves telling stories and collecting books. As the months pass, Komona and the Magician fall in love. Just when they think they are finally free of the war's hold on them, fate decides otherwise. In order to survive, Komona will have to tell her story to her unborn child and correct past mistakes. Around them, the war rages on...

Laurence Anyways - Canada-France coproduction (majority Canadian). Drama co-produced by Lyse Lafontaine (Lyla Films), Nathanaël Karmitz and Charles Gillibert (MK2), and written and directed by Xavier Dolan. Laurence Anyways tells the story of impossible love. On the day of his 30th birthday, Laurence, who is in love with Fred, tells Fred—after much obscure circling around the subject—that he wants to become a woman.

Le Torrent - Drama produced by Jacques Blain and Sylvain Corbeil (Lusio Films), written and directed by Simon Lavoie, and based on the renowned novel by Anne Hébert. 1922, rural Quebec. Claudine, a young single mother who has been ostracized by her family, lives on an isolated farm where she raises her son in the strictest religious observance. She wants her "bastard" son to eventually become a priest, hoping thus to be rehabilitated in the eyes of her community. One day, upon returning from school, François, now a young man, defies his mother's authority for the first time. She subsequently strikes him so hard on the head that he becomes deaf. The only sound he can now hear is the roar of a fast-flowing stream not far from their farm. Shortly after, an untameable horse begins appearing at the farm, who becomes instrumental in François' killing of his mother. After several months of idleness, François begins to feel desire for a woman. He buys a mysterious young girl from a pedlar who has been camping out on his land. He names the girl Amica. Feeling free of his mother at last, François lets himself slowly become tamed by the girl. The day comes, however, when she discovers his terrible secret and betrays him...

Liverpool - Romantic comedy produced by Rogier Frappier and Luc Vandal (Max Films), and written and directed by Manon Briand. A coat-check clerk at a bar decides to return an unclaimed coat to its owner, but suddenly finds herself caught up in a criminal matter. One of the bar's regulars, who has long been secretly in love with her, agrees to risk his life in order to help her.

Magasin des suicides - France-Canada coproduction (majority France). Animation co-produced by André Rouleau (Caramel Films), Gilles Podesta (Diabolo Films) and Thomas Langmann (La Petite Reine), and written and directed by Patrice Leconte. Imagine a store that, for the past 10 generations, has been selling all possible items that one might need to commit suicide. This little family business thrives in an atmosphere marked by sadness and melancholy until the awful day when a ruthless enemy appears: joie de vivre—love of life.

Pee Wee - Family film, regional coproduction, produced by Christian Larouche (Christal Films Production) and Valérie Bissonnette (Vélocité International), written by Emmanuel Joly, Martin Bouchard and Jean-Sébastien Poirier, and directed by Éric Tessier. Winter has come around once again and with it a new hockey season. A group of 11- and 12-year-old boys, living in a small Quebec village, get ready to play the most important hockey season of their lives. They're going to try to make it to the most prestigious minor hockey tournament in the world, Quebec's World Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament. With the arrival of a new teammate, Janeau Trudel, a boy who has withdrawn into himself following his mother's tragic death, but who is more skilled than any of the other players, the team starts to believe it has a real chance of entering the famous tournament. However, Janeau's arrival in the village comes to profoundly upset the harmony that prevails within the team. The boys can now start dreaming of trophies and fame, but a few of them are upset by their new teammate's sudden celebrity. The coach, Mike Tremblay, a grizzled, retired veteran trainer, will have to deploy wisdom and patience in order to restore peace in his team's locker room. The tournament approaches and the pressure mounts, even though these are just kids' games. Janeau leads his team to the big final, but will the players be able to set aside their differences, their quarrels and jealousies, and win the cup?

Projet Omerta - Crime thriller, produced by Denise Robert and Daniel Louis (Cinémaginaire), and written and directed by Luc Dionne. Louise Savard, a "professional informant" and former double agent, infiltrates Montreal's criminal underworld. Her task: to win the trust of Jack Leblanc, a drug trafficker well known to the police. Newly released from prison, Leblanc joins up with the Italian Mafia and sets up a con aimed at stealing the gold stored at the Central Bank of Canada. At the same time, Jack Leblanc is waging another fight: getting his revenge on the two cops, François Pelletier and Pierre Gauthier, who are responsible for his arrest 16 years earlier, and whom Leblanc accuses of having "fabricated" the proof that resulted in his going to jail. Everything seems to be going smoothly for the Sûreté Nationale—until the time they lose trace of Louise Savard.

Roche Papier Ciseaux - Suspense, produced by Christine Falco and Sandra-Dalhie Goyer (Les Films Camera Oscura), written by André Guiluni and Yan Lanouette-Turgeon, and directed by Yan Lanouette-Turgeon. A young Native man leaves his reservation for Montréal and for what he hopes will be a brighter future. Along the way, he meets a former criminal now forced to do odd jobs. An old Italian man takes part in a game of Russian roulette with a pharmaceutical flavour in the hope of winning enough money to fulfill his dying wife's last wish. A doctor, who has been struck off the medical register and is now working for Chinese mobsters, attempts to break free of the "organization" that employs him without jeopardizing himself or those he loves. From the roads of northern Quebec to the backrooms of Chinatown, will these men, linked together by the fate of an ill and crazy Mafia boss, be able to emerge unscathed from their shared nightmare? The answer comes one night during a lunar eclipse. But only if the light returns in time to help them see a little more clearly.

Tout ce que tu possèdes - Drama produced by Bernadette Payeur (Corporation ACPAV), and written and directed by Bernard Émond. A man trying to break with his past must decide whether to renounce a large inheritance because it is made up of ill-gotten gains. At the same time, he meets his teenage daughter, whose mother he had left when she was pregnant. 

About Telefilm Canada
Telefilm Canada is a federal cultural agency dedicated to developing and promoting the Canadian audiovisual industry. Telefilm provides financial support to the private sector to create distinctively Canadian productions that appeal to domestic and international audiences. Telefilm also administers the Canada Media Fund's programs. Visit www.telefilm.gc.ca.

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