Congorama

A film set in Belgium and Quebec. Michel is a Belgian inventor. In his forties, living with his wife and son, and none of his inventions works. One day he asks his father for a document. The man tells him something. Michel was adopted. There is a place in the papers: Quebec. From there the film is a search. Michel goes to Canada. He arrives at a town. It is called Sainte-Cécile. He tells nobody who he is. He finds a family. That surname is in the records. There is an accident. Michel hits an emu on the road and his car breaks down. A man helps him. Louis takes him to his house. Then the film stops. The narrative rewinds. The same events are told again from Louis's view. The same day, the same accident, the same road. But this time we know what happened. Louis is Michel's brother. And he does not know. In the second part the narrative shows that every detail of the first has another meaning. What the narrative is interested in is not identity but point of view: its idea is that the same events are entirely different for two people, and that the viewer sees both. There is an invention line as well. Michel is working on an electric car and nobody is interested. The year is 1998 and the idea is early. The Congo is in the background. Michel's family is connected to Belgium's colonial past and the narrative opens that in a few scenes. There is a bird as well. The emu keeps returning through the narrative and is entirely absurd. The tone is dry. The narrative enlarges no scene emotionally. It closes at the end of the second part and the two brothers never meet. The film was named best film at the Jutra awards in Quebec. Philippe Falardeau directed. Olivier Gourmet, Paul Ahmarani, Jean-Pierre Cassel and Gabriel Arcand are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes Quebec cinema and games with structure. Who it is not for: anyone looking for straight telling; the film goes back to the beginning halfway through and the first part has to be watched a second time.