Country: Canada
Language: French
Year: 2011
Running Time: 111 min
Tragedy strikes a family in rural Canada struggling to keep their dairy farm from going under. The man of the family is killed in a freak accident leaving his wife as the sole provider and caregiver looking after their rebellious teenage son who is dealing with his emerging sexuality. The father's sudden death is not the first time this family suffers a loss. Now the bonds of family are being tested when the relationship between mother and son becomes strained as she seeks comfort in the arms of a stranger who arrives at the farm with questionable intent.
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Director
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Guy Édoin
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Producer
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Félize Frappier
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Producer
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Luc Vandal
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Production Company
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Max Films Productions
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Writer
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Guy Édoin
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Executive Producer
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Roger Frappier
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Director of Photography
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Serge Desrosiers
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Production Design
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André-Line Beauparlant
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Editor
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Mathieu Bouchard-Malo
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Original Music
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Nathalie Boileau
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Original Music
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Pierre Desrochers
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Pascale Bussières
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as Marie
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Gabriel Maillé
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as Simon
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Luc Picard
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as Jean
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François Papineau
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as Pierre
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Angéle Coutu
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as Thérese
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Denise Dubois
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as Réjeanne
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In 2000, Guy Édoin earned a certificate in script development from the Université du Québec à Montréal. He continued his studies at the Université de Montréal, where he directed his first short films, Comme une image (2002) and Placebo (2002).
Both films were presented in official competition at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in 2003.
In 2004, he directed Le Pont, the first short film in a trilogy entitled Les Affluents, produced by Métafilms and starring Patrick Hivon and Catherine Bonneau. After its world premiere at the 29th Toronto International Film Festival, Le Pont was nominated for a Jutra award for best short film in 2005 and was screened at over 20 festivals worldwide.Les Eaux Mortes (2006), the second film in the trilogy, starring Monique Miller and Gabriel Gascon, was also screened worldwide as an official selection or in competition at over 20 festivals, overseas and at home including winning the Jutra award for best short film and took part in the Short Film Corner at Cannes in 2007 and being selected for the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.
Édoin’s run of awards continued with La Battue, also screened worldwide. Presented in its world premiere at the prestigious Locarno International Film Festival, the last instalment in the trilogy, featuring Amélie Prévost and Denise Dubois in the lead roles. It also played at the Toronto International Film Festival and was included among Canada’s Top Ten short films. Nominated for several best short film awards (Genie, Jutra), the film won best short film at the 2008 Festival du nouveau cinéma, best director at the Regard sur le court métrage au Saguenay in 2009 as well as the Grand Prix des Amériques for best short film at the 2009 Festival des 3 Amériques, among many others. La Battue has also been screened in Los Angeles, Melbourne, Namur, Dresden, Huesca, Paris, Liège, Santiago de Compostela and Sienna, Italy.
Marécages (Wetlands) is his first feature film.
2011 WETLANDS [MARÉCAGES]
2008 LA BATTUE (short)
2006 LES EAUX MORTES (short)
2004 LE PONT (short)
THE STARPHOENIX
Author: JEANETTE STEWART
"Guy Édoin makes astounding debut with WETLANDS. Stunningly beautiful…the film is helped by the
magnetic quality of Bussières, who convincingly expresses her unending grief during close, lingering shots."
TORONTO SUN
Author: BRUCE KIRKLAND
"With a powerful echo of Quebec filmmaking legend Claude Jutra’s uncompromising self-assurance,
Guy Edoin makes his feature film debut."
Filmmaker Magazine
30-Sep-2011
Author: Howard Feinstein
Amidst all the male bonding, TIFF offered some gems in which women hold the screen—Marie (Pascale Bussiers) in French Canadian director Guy Edoin’s Wetlands (Marecages) being exemplary. This first feature is brilliant, shot naturalistically but with great precision, as if Edoin had studied both Renoir and Straub. And Bussiers, as a dairy farmer’s wife struggling financially, psychologically, and emotionally, gives the finest performance I saw at the festival.
NOW TORONTO
Author: NORM WILNER
“raw and powerful…Cinematographer Serge Desrosiers's stark tableaux set the drama against a backdrop of implacable natural beauty”
Variety
04-Sep-2011
Author: Boyd van Hoeij
Impressively staged scene already signals Edoin's carefully constructed yet deceptively simple narrative style, which works on two levels. First, there's a clear commitment to showing the grim everyday details of modern-day agriculture and, through these details, suggesting how much hard work goes into something fraught with potential disaster every step of the way (the summer heat affecting the family's crops is another constant threat).
Second, the scene also works on a symbolical level, foreshadowing one of the story's major leitmotifs: accidental death. As the pic progresses, it emerges that Simon had a younger brother who drowned when he was under his supervision, and about a half-hour in, Jean is fatally hurt in an accident that also involves his son.