Kuessipan (2019)
NARRATIVE | YOUTH | INDIGENOUS
SATURDAY 24 APRIL | 6:30PM
VILLAGE CINEMAS CENTURY CITY
FEATURING A SHORT FILM BY GRID SERIES
Director: Myriam Verreault
Country: Canada
Year: 2019
Duration: 117 minutes
Language: Innu, French, English with English subtitles
Genre: Narrative
Awards: Nominee, Best Film, Göteborg Film Festival 2020 / Nominee, Best Canadian Film, TIFF 2019
Screening Location: Village Cinemas Century City, 285-287 Springvale Rd, Glen Waverley | About this cinema
Festival SelectionS
Synopsis
“I wrote Kuessipan, which means ‘it’s your turn’ in Innu. I said it’s my turn to talk, my turn for my people and I to talk about our community. I wanted to portray the people of our community with the love I have for them: my grandmother, my cousins, my friends, and all the people who live there.”
- Naomi Fontaine
Adapted from an acclaimed Canadian novel by First Nations writer Naomi Fontaine, Kuessipan is the coming-of-age story told through an Indigenous lens of two First Nation girls from a rural Quebec Innu community, Mikuan and Shaniss.
The pair have been close friends throughout their childhood years, despite different family backgrounds. But with the end of their teenage years approaching, they clash over differing ambitions. Mikuan, the more studious of the pair, dreams of life beyond their tiny reserve, and embarks on a relationship that puts her at odds with her lifelong companion. As their friendship is put to the test, the 17 year-olds struggle to find their place in the world.
Nominated for Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival, director Myriam Verreault’s debut feature as adapted for the screen by Fontaine herself, is a poignant study of friendship and community, and the bonds of culture, is full of humour, kindness and heartbreak.
"Kuessipan is quiet and mesmerizing and tragic and full of hope. It is a triumph, and a privilege to spend time with." - Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail
Unclassified 15+
GRID SERIES SHORT FILM FEATURING FLEWNT
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