“The film is an incisive critique of the power imbalance between citizens and immigrants and the hypocrisy of an unjust justice system. It jolts the viewer out of complacency.”
This is how Kelsey Adams of NOW Magazine describes Antigone, the next film being screened by the Quesnel Film Club during its winter season.
Antigone loosely adapts Sophocles’ Greek tragedy and situates it in contemporary Montreal, according to the Quesnel Film Club’s brochure.
“The latest from critically-acclaimed Québécois writer-director Sophie Deraspe is a compassionate family drama that doesn’t hold back on its indictment of the current refugee and immigrant experience in North America,” it states. “Winner of the Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival, Antigone acutely explores familial sacrifice, the burden of responsibility and the nature of justice with exceptional depth and nuance. Although inspired by a story 2,500 years old, Deraspe’s film is a timely meditation — one that prompts serious reflection on immigrant life in an ostensibly welcoming contemporary Canada.”
In September, Antigone was chosen as the Canadian entry in the 2020 Academy Awards’ best international feature film category — which was previously known as best foreign language film — although it did not make the final list of nominees.
Earlier this month, the film was selected as one of five finalists for the Prix Collégial du Cinéma Québécois.
Following the murder of their parents, Antigone, her sister Ismene, her brothers Étéocle and Polynice and their grandmother Ménécée find refuge in Montreal.
According to the film club brochure, they live a quiet, modest life in a tiny apartment in a working-class neighbourhood, and Antigone, who is a straight-A student and seems destined for greatness, is “the glue that holds the family together.”
Tragedy strikes when Étéocle is wrongfully killed by police during the arrest of Polynice.
“Motivated by her sense of duty towards her family and fuelled by the memory she cherishes of her dead parents, Antigone decides to jeopardize her own future to preserve that of her family,” according to the brochure.
The Quesnel Film Club’s screening of Antigone will be Thursday, Jan. 30 at 6:30 p.m. at the Carib Theatre in downtown Quesnel. Regular admission is $10 and senior admission is $8, and film club memberships are included with admission.
For more information about the Quesnel Film Club or any of its film screenings, call 250-992-6298, email quesnelfilmclub@gmail.com or join the Quesnel Film Club group on Facebook.
The Quesnel Film Club thanks Big Country Printers for being a sponsor.
READ MORE: The Quesnel Film Club has released its winter 2020 schedule
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