Stephane Demers Movies

The faith of a caring physician and an unquestioningly religious youth is shaken to the core when the pair is inexplicably brought together in a bizarre twist of fate and tragedy in Canadian director Bernard Émond's thought-provoking drama. Jeanne (Elise Guilbault) is a committed Montreal physician whose kindly bedside manner has propelled her to the top of her profession, earning the respect of her peers and the love of her patients. Her faith in humanity is forever shaken when her attempts to aid an abused patient and her helpless child result in a horrific act of violence. When an aimless drive leads her to the town of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré that houses a popular Catholic shrine, her attempt to drown herself in the St. Lawrence River is thwarted by François (Patrick Drolet), a young man commuting to Saint-Anne so that he may recite the novena for his ailing grandmother. As the pair enter into a tenuous friendship and the condition of François' grandmother gradually worsens, the staunchly religious teen begins experiencing his own crisis of faith. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

After their father died and their mother left them for a life in Spain with her Spanish lover, the Tanguay siblings were understandably perturbed. To protect their younger sister Isabelle (Fanny Mallette) from the truth, sisters Catherine (Marina Orsini) and Martine (Celine Bonnier) and brother Luc (Stephane Demers) told Isabelle that their mother had died. Unfortunately, twenty years later, the repercussions of this lie are all too apparent: Isabelle, now 25, has the emotional maturity of an 11-year-old, and harbors a grudge against the world and Catherine -- now a schoolteacher -- in particular. When Isabelle persuades Martine and Luc to visit her and Catherine in the Quebec village where they live, the return of the two siblings -- one an angry lesbian, the other an angst-ridden writer -- gives rise to full-fledged chaos first sparked two decades earlier. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

In this vivid drama, based on the real-life experiences of the director, who was a counselor for such youths, troubled juvenile offenders in Quebec tell him about their harsh lives and their hopes for the future. Though perhaps one or two will manage to live into their thirties, most are clearly doomed by their lives of prostitution, violence and drugs. Despite the unflinching realism of the kids' stories, their parts are played by actors. One particularly moving story is that of a girl whose family placed her in a juvenile detention facility to get her away from her mother's boyfriend, who had raped her. In a dejected fashion she explains the situation this way: "I'm doing his (her rapist's) time instead of him." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide