IMAGINENATIVE FILM & MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL through Sunday (October 23) at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. $7-$12. imaginenative.org. See Indie & Rep Film.
MESNAK (Yves Sioui Durand, Canada). 96 minutes. Subtitled. Today (Thursday, October 20), 9:30 pm. Rating: NNNN
The spectre of Shakespeare’s Hamlet moves very intentionally through this powerful tale of ancestry and memory.
Young Montreal actor Dave (Victor Andres Turgeon-Trelles) arrives in a small Quebec community after receiving a photograph of the mother (Kathia Rock) he never knew. She’s a recovering alcoholic about to take a new husband, and she wants nothing to do with the son she gave up years earlier.
Strong performances and a complex script that mixes classic tragedy with a contemporary world of AA meetings and dangerous house parties make this a surprisingly intense debut for director and co-writer Yves Sioui Durand. Stage and screen director Robert Morin is credited as one of the writers, so maybe it’s not that surprising.
