Rebel (2019 film)

Rebel
FrenchRecrue
Directed byPier-Philippe Chevigny
Written byPier-Philippe Chevigny
Produced byGeneviève Gosselin-G.
StarringÉdouard B. Larocque
Émile Schneider
CinematographyGabriel Brault-Tardif
Edited byPier-Philippe Chevigny
Production
company
Productions l'Unité Centrale
Distributed byH264 Distribution
Release date
  • September 7, 2019 (2019-09-07) (TIFF)
Running time
15 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageFrench

Rebel (French: Recrue) is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Pier-Philippe Chevigny and released in 2019.[1] The film centres on Alex (Edouard B. Larocque), a six-year-old boy whose father Dave (Émile Schneider) is a member of a far-right militia who are hunting refugees; taken out on the expedition, Alex is initially happy to play and have fun, but quickly changes his perspective and begins to rebel against his father after a chance encounter with a family hiding in the trees awakens him to what's actually going on.[2]

The cast also includes Jean-Nicolas Verreault, Sasha Migliarese, Luc Boucher, Irlande Côté, Amir Sám Nakhjavani, Baharan BaniAhmadi, Denis Marchand, Hugolin Chevrette-Landesque, Ines Feghouli, Serge Pelletier, Juliette Maxyme Proulx, Ghislain LaRocque and Eliott Plamondon.

According to Chevigny, the film was inspired by a photograph of a young boy waving a flag at a La Meute demonstration.[3] However, he also stated that he felt it was important for the film to not portray the militia members as straightforward villains, but as fundamentally normal people caught up in the emotion of the political climate around the migration crisis at the time the film was made.[3]

The film premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.[1] It was screened at over 100 film festivals over the next two years, and won various awards;[4] an award from the Tirana International Film Festival placed it in longlisted contention for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021,[5] although it did not make the final list of nominees.

  1. ^ a b Martin Gignac, "Portrait du TIFF: Pier-Philippe Chevigny". Voir, September 6, 2019.
  2. ^ Céline Roustan, "Recrue (Rebel)". Short of the Week, December 9, 2020.
  3. ^ a b Ilana Belfer, "A Local Director Found A Totally Unique Way To Depict Right-Wing Extremism In Quebec". MTL Blog, March 8, 2021.
  4. ^ Lynn Desjardins, "Film shows right wing extremists’ abuse of refugees". Radio Canada International, November 16, 2020.
  5. ^ Dan Spector, "Quebec short film exploring rise of right-wing extremism makes Oscar long list". Global News, February 8, 2021.