About

Xavier Dolan’s debut coming-of-age drama follows a turbulent relationship between sixteen-year-old Hubert and his mother, recipient of the C.I.C.A.E award at Cannes Film Festival in 2009.

Set in Montreal, Dolan’s tender semi-autobiographical portrait weaves together a story of queer teenage angst alongside the struggles of his single income mother. In place of an absent father, Hubert’s mother (Anne Dorval) skillfully bears the brunt of her son’s anguish with both sincerity and wit. Frustratingly self-absorbed, Hubert must figuratively ‘kill’ his mother to enter the next stage of his life. This character piece expands many of the ideas of family and motherhood in this program; in Dolan’s depiction of a broken household he evokes a duality of love and friction between a queer teen and his mother.

M | Coarse language, drug use and sex scene