And the Birds Rained Down (Louise Archambault)

TIFF 2019 is still very young, but Louise Archambault’s “And the Birds Rained Down” is likely to be one of the standouts when things wrap up next weekend.

It’s a story of three old hermits living by a lake in Northern Quebec. They’ve been there for years. The film opens with the death of Ted Boychuk, a painter and local legend. Into their orbit arrives a local inn manager, his aunt and a photographer working on an art show about a catastrophic fire that occurred in the woods many years ago (the title is a reference to the birds who flew above the fire until they suffocated from lack of oxygen, their bodies plummeting to the ground).

As the film progresses, we learn about what brought the three to the lake and what the future might have in store for them.

It’s an exceptionally well-acted ensemble piece about history and mortality. Rémy Girard performs double-duty as the embittered alcoholic musician Tom (he sings a number of songs in the film). The growing relationship between (Gilbert Sicotte) and “Marie” (Andrée  Lachapelle) is handled beautifully and with great sensitivity.