In this meditative drama about time and friendship, award-winning director Louise Archambault (Familia, Gabrielle) weaves together the stories of three aging hermits who have left their former lives and gone ‘off the grid’ into the Quebec landscape. Living in a remote forest near a lake, Tom, Charlie, and Ted pass the time by tending to their neighbor’s cannabis crop, swimming, singing, and reminiscing. Their peaceful pastoral existence is soon shattered by a sudden death of one in their group, and by the arrival of two women: a young photographer who wants to know more about the troubled pasts of these hermits, and an elderly woman who spent most of her life institutionalized and is now looking for solace in nature. Meanwhile, wildfires are threatening the region and encroaching on what was their idyllic life away from the modern world. Within its quiet, intimate personal dramas, And The Birds Rained Down delivers a poetic, elegiac study of intertwined lives and destinies, where love can happen at any age. It also features a star-studded ensemble cast of legendary Quebec actors, including Remy Girard, Gilbert Sicotte, Louise Portal, and Andrée Lachapelle.
Selected as one of Canada’s Top Ten of 2019
Official Selections: Toronto, San Sebastian, Vancouver, FNC Montreal, Palm Springs, Miami
Dragon Award Best International Film, Göteborg Film Festival
“A deceptively gentle rural drama with an ecological slant and a tone that darkens as it advances, And the Birds Rained Down ends up delivering far more than it initially promises.”
- Jonathan Holland, The Hollywood Reporter
“A quiet, gentle film about emotional and geographic exile, this melancholic charmer is a choral character study whose slow pacing matches the unhurried lifestyle of its protagonists and the diurnal and seasonal rhythms of the nature they inhabit.”
- Lee Marshall, ScreenDaily
- Year2019
- Runtime127 minutes
- LanguageFrench
- NoteEnglish subtitles
- DirectorLouise Archambault
In this meditative drama about time and friendship, award-winning director Louise Archambault (Familia, Gabrielle) weaves together the stories of three aging hermits who have left their former lives and gone ‘off the grid’ into the Quebec landscape. Living in a remote forest near a lake, Tom, Charlie, and Ted pass the time by tending to their neighbor’s cannabis crop, swimming, singing, and reminiscing. Their peaceful pastoral existence is soon shattered by a sudden death of one in their group, and by the arrival of two women: a young photographer who wants to know more about the troubled pasts of these hermits, and an elderly woman who spent most of her life institutionalized and is now looking for solace in nature. Meanwhile, wildfires are threatening the region and encroaching on what was their idyllic life away from the modern world. Within its quiet, intimate personal dramas, And The Birds Rained Down delivers a poetic, elegiac study of intertwined lives and destinies, where love can happen at any age. It also features a star-studded ensemble cast of legendary Quebec actors, including Remy Girard, Gilbert Sicotte, Louise Portal, and Andrée Lachapelle.
Selected as one of Canada’s Top Ten of 2019
Official Selections: Toronto, San Sebastian, Vancouver, FNC Montreal, Palm Springs, Miami
Dragon Award Best International Film, Göteborg Film Festival
“A deceptively gentle rural drama with an ecological slant and a tone that darkens as it advances, And the Birds Rained Down ends up delivering far more than it initially promises.”
- Jonathan Holland, The Hollywood Reporter
“A quiet, gentle film about emotional and geographic exile, this melancholic charmer is a choral character study whose slow pacing matches the unhurried lifestyle of its protagonists and the diurnal and seasonal rhythms of the nature they inhabit.”
- Lee Marshall, ScreenDaily
- Year2019
- Runtime127 minutes
- LanguageFrench
- NoteEnglish subtitles
- DirectorLouise Archambault