Mani, a master’s student, returns to the remote place in northern Quebec where she grew up. Her painful past resurfaces. Resolved to reintegrate into her former home, she gets involved in the debate around a referendum on allowing the free sale of alcohol. Laura, a bootlegger, pockets the profits she makes there under the protection of the band council and her partner Raymond. The latter is still angry with Mani, whom he holds responsible for the death of his daughter in a fire. Two radically opposed women divide the community into two sides who face each other to determine the best path to independence.
Caroline Monnet Daniel Watchorn
Caroline Monnet
Danielle Dansereau Robert Morin
Pascale Bussières Devery Jacobs Samian Jacques Newashish Dominique Pétin Joséphine Bacon C,S, Gilbert Crazy Horse Brigitte Poupart Charles Bender
Aube Foglia
Nicolas Canniccioni
Louisa Schabas
Éric Poirier
Stéphane Barsalou Guillaume Daoust Jean-François B. Sauvé Bernard Gariepy Strobl
Jean Martin Tanya Tagaq
Catherine Chagnon
Pierre Even
Sheldon McGregor
Microclimat Films
SODEC Telefilm Canada Fonds Harold Greenberg
Best Friend Forever
Canadian Broadcast Corporation Super Écran
2022 Prix Iris for Most successful Film Outside Québec
2022 Prix Jean Malaurie by Festival du film canadien de Dieppe
2022 Prix TVA Est-du-Québec for Best Film, Audience Award for Best Québec Film, Prix Centre Manicouagan for Best Sound by Festival du film international de Baie-Comeau – Cinoche
2021 Best Dramatic Feature Award by imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
2021 Canadian Emergent Director Award by Vancouver International Film Festival
2017 Best Screenplay Award by CNC & Cinéfondation Cannes Film Festival
Caroline Monnet is a multidisciplinary artist of Algonquin ancestry from Outaouais, Quebec. She studied Sociology and Communication at the University of Ottawa (Canada) and the University of Granada (Spain) before pursuing a career in visual art and film. Monnet’s short films Ikwé (2009), Warchild (2010), Mobilize (2015), Tshieutin (2016), Dada Creatura (2016), and Emptying the Tank (2018) all screened at TIFF. Gephyrophobia (2012) screened at Les Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, and Mobilize was selected at the Sundance Film Festival. She was nominated for Best Short Film for Roberta (2014) and Best Short Documentary for Tshiuetin at the Canadian Screen Awards. Her first feature film Bootlegger won Best Screenplay at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, an award granted by the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC) and Cinéfondation.
