Official Selection

COMME LE FEU

Philippe Lesage | Canada, France | 2024 | 161 min. In French with English and Spanish subtitles
COMME LE FEU

Since his impressive debut The Demons, Philippe Lesage has established himself as a pivotal and relentlessly bold screenwriter. In Who by Fire, a remote hunting lodge in a spectacular setting in northern Canada serves as the backdrop to confront the yearning of a couple of teenagers with the immaturity of adults. Defined as an unlikely cross between Rohmer and Deliverance, this laconic survival film with nods to Bergman and a scrutinising camera is full of tension, ambiguous games, off-screen dangers and unexpected twists. With the complicity of Arieh Worthalter in an outstanding performance (after his Best Actor César for The Goldman Affair), the Québécois filmmaker once again questions predefined models – of adulthood and manhood – in this sharp portrait of human comedy/tragedy, winner of the Berlinale’s Generation 14plus award.