Ciné-Salon: Spécial Québec

Pascal Marchand, an aspiring poet from Montreal, arrived in the mythical land of Burgundy to work the harvest at age 21. Enchanted by the region, he settled there and embarked on an unlikely path to winemaking stardom. Now over 30 years later, he is renowned as an artist and innovator, finding his inspiration in the ancient techniques of the Cistercian monks who meticulously studied and refined Burgundy's winemaking in the middle ages. Shot over his most difficult year ever, the catastrophic 2016 season which saw devastating frosts, hailstorms and disease in the vineyards, the film is both a love letter and a cautionary tale, as winemakers like Pascal must face the unpredictable and destructive consequences of climate change.

Brother Marie-Victorin (Yves Jacques), author of the Laurentian Flora and founder of Montreal’s Botanical Garden, is bored with heaven and decides to return earth to help Albert Payette (Roy Dupuis) save Quebec’s flora from Transgenia, a multinational that is poisoning the Earth with chemicals. Albert, a former agronomist turned beekeeper, greens the rooftops of Montreal with his nephew Jerry Can (Émile Schneider) and his friends from the punk community. Albert introduces Marie-Victorin to his Honey-Mead which he sells to suburban bourgeois ladies to finance his dream of retiring to idyllic Mingan. Lili de la Rosbil (Juliette Gosselin), an idealist young journalist for the Ras-le-Bol blog and Mathilde Gavreau (Christine Beaulieu), a big-time lawyer, will go to great lengths to save the Mexican agricultural labourers forced to work with Transgenia’s poisonous chemicals. This Eco-Fable will see its conclusion meted out on the lush and virgin shores of Mingan where Albert will produce his most Nordic and special Honey Mead yet.