The Trotsky

Leon Bronstein is a high school student in Montreal and believes he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky. This is not a joke; he plans his life by it. At his summer job he tries to organise the workers in his father's warehouse and calls a strike. His father takes him out of private school and enrols him at a state one. Leon sets to work here too: the student union is to be turned into a trade union. The principal objects. Leon is in love with a woman older than himself; her name is Alexandra, and Trotsky's first wife was called Aleksandra. Jacob Tierney writes and directs. Jay Baruchel plays Leon; Emily Hampshire, Geneviève Bujold and Colm Feore are in the cast. It is a Canadian production and is set in Montreal. The matter it treats is believing; Leon's fixation is absurd but at a certain point it produces a real result. The narrative uses Trotsky's life as a template; Leon tries to fit every step to it. It does not appear to take politics seriously, yet the union section turns into an actual argument about law. The humour is dry; the joke comes mostly from the character's belief in himself. The narrative leaves it unsettled to the end whether Leon is right. The film won awards in Canada and became the director's best known work. Its limit is tone; the narrative sits between teen comedy and political satire and does neither fully. Who it is for: viewers who like Canadian independent cinema and odd character comedy. Who it is not for: the jokes ask for knowledge, the pace is uneven, and the ending sweet.