Lilies

In 1952 Bishop Bilodeau goes to a prison to hear a confession. The man who summoned him is Simon, a childhood friend convicted of murder forty years earlier. But there is no confession in the cell; Simon and the other inmates force the bishop to watch a play. The play is set in a small Quebec town in 1912 and tells the story of three young men. As the scenes proceed, what the bishop himself did in the past comes out. John Greyson's film adapts Michel Marc Bouchard's play Les Feluettes. Its boldest decision is that every woman's role inside the play is performed by a male inmate; the narrative uses this not as a trick but as a condition of the story, and after a while the audience stops registering the difference. The film received fourteen nominations at the 17th Genie Awards and won four, including best picture. Who it's for: Viewers who like queer cinema, stage adaptations, and nested narrative structures. Who it's not for: The structure can confuse in the first half and the theatrical register is not for everyone. The sense of retribution at the end brings no relief either.