La turbulence des fluides (Chaos and Desire)

Director Manon Briand
Year 2002
Run Time 115min
Genre Comedy, Drama, Thriller

A Quebecois seismologist living in Tokyo returns to her hometown to investigate the strange disruption of the tides along the St Lawrence, in Manon Briand’s atmospheric and deftly humorous drama.

Suspecting that the cessation of the tides might indicate an impending earthquake, Alice (Pascale Bussieres) arrives in Baie-Comeau, Quebec to solve the mystery.

Confronted by numerous people from her past, unusual weather and the inexplicable behaviour of the locals (including Genevieve Bujold as the owner of a local diner who is convinced of a supernatural explanation), Alice’s scientific certainty begins to waver Though many of the locals’ stories don’t stand up to scrutiny, she starts to suspect that something beyond her comprehension may be happening.

 "So visually energetic and smartly written that one never stops enjoying the sheer pleasure of looking at it." – Liz Braun, Jam! Movies
 

Director

Manon Briand

Writer/director Briand’s other features include 2 secondes and the TV movie Heart: The Marilyn Bell Story. For her feature La turbulence des fluides, Briand earned a Jutra Award and many other nominations. Her first short film, Les sauf-conduits, won Best Canadian Short Film at TIFF.

Writer

Manon Briand

Cast

Julie Gayet, Jean-Nicolas Verreault, Geneviève Bujold, Pascale Bussieres

Producers

Roger Frappier, Luc Vandal, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam

Genres

Comedy, Drama, Thriller

Interests

Environment, Female Filmmaker

Original Languages

English, French

Small Town Murder Songs

Director Ed Gass-Donnelly
Year 2011
Run Time 76min
Genre Drama, Thriller

A modern gothic tale of crime and redemption about an aging police officer (Peter Stormare) from a small Ontario Mennonite town who hides a violent past until a local murder upsets the calm of his newly reformed life. Also starring Jill Hennessy.

Director

Ed Gass-Donnelly

Writer

Ed Gass-Donnelly

Cast

Peter Stormare, Jill Hennessy

Producers

Ed Gass-Donnelly, Lee Kim

Genres

Drama, Thriller

Interest

Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

English

Spider

Director David Cronenberg
Year 2002
Run Time 98min
Genre Drama, Thriller
A mentally disturbed man takes residence in a halfway house. His mind gradually slips back into the realm created by his illness, where he replays a key part of his childhood.

Director

David Cronenberg

Writer

Patrick McGrath

Cast

Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne

Producers

Catherine Bailey, David Cronenberg, Samuel Hadida

Genres

Drama, Thriller

Original Language

English

Un zoo la nuit (Night Zoo)

Director Jean-Claude Lauzon
Year 1987
Run Time 115min
Genre Drama, Thriller
Recently released from prison, Marcel attempts to rebuild his relationships with his girlfriend, Julie, and his father, Albert, while being pursued by two corrupt cops.

Director

Jean-Claude Lauzon

Cast

Corrado Mastropasqua, Lorne Brass, Gilles Maheu, Roger Lebel

Producers

Roger Frappier, Pierre Gendron

Genres

Drama, Thriller

Interests

Cult & Offbeat Cinema, Family Relationships, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

French

Les affamés (Ravenous)

Director Robin Aubert
Year 2017
Run Time 104min
Genre Action/Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Thriller

In the bleak aftermath of an outbreak of zombies in rural Quebec, Bonin (Marc-André Grondin) struggles to survive along with the rapidly dwindling remaining population. When he encounters a group hiding in a house that is in the path of an invading horde of the undead, he must decide whether or not to save them, as doing so would put him and his companions in danger.

Les affamés is a brilliant and fresh take on the zombie genre, maintaining a tense atmosphere with exceptional moments of horror. It won the Best Canadian Feature prize at TIFF in 2017 and swept the Jutra Awards (now the Prix Iris) with ten wins, including Best Film and Best Direction.

“Robin Aubert's idiosyncratic and nuanced drama breathes fresh life into the zombie apocalypse subgenre.” - John Leydon, Variety

Director

Robin Aubert

Saints-Martyrs-des-Damnés premiered at TIFF 2005. Aubert also directed the feature films À quelle heure le train pour nulle part, À l’origine d’un cri, and Tuktuq, and starred in De père en flic, the critical hit Guibord s’en va-t-en guerre, Jeune Juliette, and Mon cirque à moi. His latest film, Les Affamés won Best Canadian Feature at TIFF 2017 and ten Prix Iris. He is currently completing his next film, Tu ne sauras jamais. 

Writer

Robin Aubert

Cast

Charlotte St-Martin, Marc-André Grondin, Monia Chokri, Micheline Lanctôt

Producers

C.S. Roy, Stéphanie Morissette

Genres

Action/Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Thriller

Original Language

French

Enemy

Director Denis Villeneuve
Year 2013
Run Time 90min
Genre Drama, Thriller

A mild-mannered history professor seeks out his exact lookalike after spotting him in a movie. A tense, adventurous thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal in a dual performance.

Director

Denis Villeneuve

Writers

José Saramago, Javier Gullón

Cast

Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent

Producers

Miguel A. Faura, Niv Fichman

Genres

Drama, Thriller

Interests

Arts and Culture, Literary Adaptation

Original Language

English

ARQ

Director Tony Elliott
Year 2016
Run Time 88min
Genre Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Thriller
Trapped in a lab and stuck in a time loop, a disoriented couple fends off masked raiders while harboring a new energy source that could save humanity.

Director

Tony Elliott

Writer

Tony Elliott

Cast

Rachael Taylor, Robbie Amell, Shaun Benson

Producers

Mason Novick, John Finemore, Kyle Franke

Genres

Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Thriller

Original Language

English

Pouvoir intime (Intimate Power)

Director Yves Simoneau
Year 1986
Run Time 87min
Genre Drama, Thriller

A security guard at a government ministry tries to plan a heist with the help of some ex-cons, but it may all be blown apart by another security guard who takes his job very seriously.

Director

Yves Simoneau

Writers

Yves Simoneau, Pierre Curzi

Cast

Marie Tifo, Pierre Curzi, Jacques Godin

Producer

Claude Bonin

Genres

Drama, Thriller

Original Language

French

Hobo with a Shotgun

Director Jason Eisener
Year 2011
Run Time 86min
Genre Action/Adventure, Comedy, Horror, Thriller
When a man with no name and no home rolls into a new city, he finds a lawless place ruled by crime lords and teeming with armed robbers, corrupt cops, abused sex workers and even a pedophile Santa. Moved to sorrow, rage and disgust at this urban chaos, the Hobo takes it on himself to clean up the city the best way he knows how — with a 20-gauge shotgun. 

This cult favourite started as a fake movie trailer in Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse. It includes several Canadiana Easter eggs and a memorable performance from Rutger Hauer, who at one point delivers a dramatic monologue to an audience of newborn babies. 

A gleeful, gory sendup of 70s exploitation films, Hobo with a Shotgun delivers plenty of shocks, mayhem and vigilante justice, “one shell at a time.” 

Director

Jason Eisener

Writer

John Davies

Cast

Molly Dunsworth, Gregory Smith, Rutger Hauer

Producers

Niv Fichman, Rob Cotterill, Paul Gross

Genres

Action/Adventure, Comedy, Horror, Thriller

Interest

Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

English

L’Inhumain (The Inhuman)

Director Jason Brennan (Anishinaabe)
Year 2022
Run Time 85min
Genre Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Thriller

Mathieu (Samian) may be a brilliant and successful neurosurgeon, but his life is far from perfect. When his long-term prescription drug habit is exposed, and his wife discovers he’s been having an affair, Mathieu faces professional and personal consequences. His father’s sudden death prompts Mathieu’s return to the northern Anishinaabe community of his youth and the remote forest cabin where he goes to scatter his father’s ashes. But what begins as a respite from his chaotic life to a place he thought he’d left far behind becomes a battle with something far darker. Haunted by painful memories and hunted by the legendary Wendigo, Mathieu faces demons both figurative and literal.       

A rare French-language Indigenous genre film, L’inhumain is the directorial debut of Anishinaabe producer and writer Jason Brennan. It’s a thrilling and evocative parable about the dangers of feeding the monster inside.   

Director

Jason Brennan (Anishinaabe)

Writer

Jason Brennan (Anishinaabe)

Cast

Samian (Algonquin), Véronique Beaudet, Jeanne Roux-Cote, Sonia Vigneault

Producer

Jason Brennan (Anishinaabe)

Genres

Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Thriller

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Cult & Offbeat Cinema, Indigenous Filmmaker

Original Language

English