Camion

Sixty-year-old widower Germain is an experienced truck driver. One day he becomes involved in an automobile accident which, although it isn’t his fault, leaves an unknown woman dead. From that moment on his life dramatically changes. Germain falls deeper into depression, life has no meaning for him anymore. Upset by what’s happening, his younger son Samuel decides to enlist brother Alain’s help in coaxing their father out of his misery, but the brothers have problems of their own. The characters of this subtle family drama are so skillfully constructed, their behavior so spontaneous, that their closeness and reciprocity can be physically felt and understood. Rafaël Ouellet succeeded in elevating his unobtrusive, “ordinary” figures into heroes battling against fate’s momentary disfavor. The French-Canadian movie Camion excels for spot-on camerawork and formal and narrative purity. And although the protagonists rush into difficult situations, the film never stoops to false, pathetic sentiment, while still addressing life’s most basic issues. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)