Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

Ariane Louis-Seize's first feature states its premise in the title. Sasha is the youngest daughter of a family of vampires and cannot bring herself to kill. She needs blood to live but prefers to sip it from a bag and not think about the killing behind it. Her family treats this as a defect of character. The solution is to find someone who wants to die. Sasha meets Paul, a boy determined to end his life, and they arrive at an arrangement that looks profitable for both. What happens next does not go where either expects. The film played in Venice Days at the Venice festival, where Louis-Seize won best director. The jury praised its willingness to take on depression, mental health, euthanasia and neurodiversity in a light register, calling it radical and courageous. Sara Montpetit plays Sasha and Félix-Antoine Bénard plays Paul. Who it is for: viewers curious about Quebec cinema that turns the vampire film into a coming-of-age story and holds sadness and jokes in the same sentence. Who it is not for: anyone who wants distance from the subject of suicide. The film does not make a joke of it, but it does talk about it constantly and directly.