Movie Review: A Colony

A Colony *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Geneviève Dulude-De Celles.

Written by: Geneviève Dulude-De Celles.

Starring: Emilie Bierre (Mylia), Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie (Jimmy), Irlande Côté (Camille), Noémie Godin-Vigneau (Nathalie), Cassandra Gosselin-Pelletier (Jacinthe), Robin Aubert (Henri).

 

You would be forgiven for thinking in the early scenes of Une Colonie – the Quebec film from debut filmmaker Geneviève Dulude-De Celles that you are basically in for a French Canadian version of Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade. Both films focus on a girl roughly the same age, who is shy and awkward, and does what she can to fit in with the rest of her classmates. There are other similarities as well – so comparisons between the two films are likely inevitable, and don’t really do Une Colonie any favors, as Burnham’s film is clearly superior. But as it moves along, you notice the differences more than the similarities – the types of things that Dulude-De Celles is doing that Burnham didn’t attempt. She is trying to make a film with a slightly wider angle lens here. Yes, it’s still about the trials and tribulations of being a 13-year-old girl – but it makes connections to the world outside of her immediate vicinity as well. It has to do with the title of the film, which is about colonization. Clearly, the main character is responsible for that – for what has been done to Indigenous Canadians in the past or present. But it explores perhaps what she can do, in her very small way.

 

The film stars Emilie Bierre (so good in a small role in Philippe Lasange’s Genesis recently as well) as Mylia – a quiet, shy 13-year-old girl in rural Quebec. She has a little sister – Camille (Irlande Cote) who is a little weird – perhaps no weirder that Mylia, but less afraid to show others her weirdness in that way little kids can be fearless. Their parents are going through some stuff – and perhaps won’t make it. All Mylia really wants is to fit in at school and have friends. And then she makes two – who couldn’t be more different from each other. The first is Jacinthe (Cassandra Gosselin-Pelletier), who is what Mylia thinks she wants in a friend – one of the popular girls, who accepts Mylia into her group, as long as she doesn’t rock the boat, or question what Jacinthe does too much. The other is Jimmy (Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie), an Abenaki boy who lives on the reserve close to town. The film certainly hints at making Jimmy into a noble savior figure –we first see him rescuing Camille as she is being taunted by the other kids in the film’s opening scene, and later we will see him rescue Mylia and get her home when she drinks too much “punch” at Jacinthe’s party. You cringe a little when you think this is going to be another story where the Indigenous character exists solely to teach the white people in the movie something – but luckily, Jimmy becomes a more complex character after those initial appearances. He is a nice guy – a real one – but he isn’t perfect, and he doesn’t just take the casual and not so casual racism he faces on a day-to-day basis in stride – it makes him angry. He is also capable of lashing out – more out of disappointment than angry – at Mylia, like when she tells him she’s dressing up with Jacinthe and her friends as a girl group for a Halloween party, and he wonders why she doesn’t go as a “warrior” instead of a “slut”.

 

But you can see where this is going – and you are pretty much right. Eventually, Mylia will have to decide between what she wants in a friendship – the real one that Jimmy offers her, which comes with the added bonus that he genuinely cares for, and likes Camille, or the kind of fake friendship that Jacinthe offers. But even that isn’t quite so simple – as the film is more a journey for Mylia than anything else. At the end of the movie, she’s pretty much in the exact same situation she was in at the beginning of the film – but now, she is better able to handle it, and stay true to herself.

 

The film is well-made by Dulude-De Celles in a casual, observational style. She doesn’t provide Mylia any opportunities – like the Vlog’s in Eighth Grade did – for her to tell her feelings to the camera, but then again, it isn’t as necessary, as she has more friends that she converses with here – and the stakes are laid out fairly explicitly. The film could have descended into cliché and sentimentality – and although it comes close at times, it never quite does. A lot of that is due to the performances – all of which appealing by the young cast. All three of Bierre, Whiteduck-Lavoie and Cote are appealing young performers, and they carry the movie through any rough patches there may be.

 

Ultimately, I do wish that a film that is about finding yourself, and being true to yourself no matter how weird that may be was a little weirder itself. Ultimately, the film pretty much does what you expect it to. I do like the young performances, the direction – and the attempt to show normal Indigenous people in Canada, and have the film not be blind to the fact that they are Indigenous, but not let that completely define a character like Jimmy as well. The film won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Picture this year – and while that is a little much (especially considering the wonderful, aforementioned Genesis was also nominated) – it certainly is a good film, and makes me interested to see what Dulude-De Celles – and her talented young cast – all do next.