Brought together for the first time, screenwriter Michel Marc Bouchard and filmmaker Léa Pool create a sensitive and gripping drama about homosexual immigration, We will be happy.

Published on November 7

Homosexuality is criminalized in around sixty countries, including Morocco. In a dozen countries, including Iran, homosexual relations can carry the death penalty. Upset by the testimonies of refugees from African countries, marked by Fox and Friendsdrama by Fassbinder about the gap between social classes, playwright and screenwriter Michel Marc Bouchard (The feluettes, The Boy Queen, Tom on the farm) had the idea of ​​creating an original scenario on homosexual immigration, a subject little explored in cinema.

“Orphaned by a director”, the author proposed his script to Lyse Lafontaine and François Bouchard, of Lyla Films. The latter then think of Léa Pool (Anne Trister, Take me away, Hotel Silence). Having herself focused on the reality of immigrants and homosexuals, the filmmaker proves to be the ideal person to put into images We will be happy. Hats off to the producers for having had the flair to organize this artistic union that we hope will be prolific.

After being smuggled through Spain and France (sequences where the extras are real illegal immigrants), Saad (Mehdi Meskar, nuanced) and Reza (Aron Archer, moving) arrived in Montreal in the hope of living their love out in the open. Soon threatened with expulsion to Iran, where he risks execution, Reza finds refuge in the basement of a church. If he wants to stay, he will have to prove his homosexuality. Having erased his identity, Saad cannot help him.

In the hope of saving Reza, Saad then begins an affair with Laurent (Alexandre Landry, luminous and candid promise of a better future), spokesperson for the Minister of Immigration (Sascha Ley). While Jeanne (Céline Bonnier, icy incarnation of administrative coldness), friend and colleague of Laurent, takes a dim view of this relationship, Saad takes a growing liking to the sweetness of life that it brings him.

From the first sequence ofWe will be happythe tone is set. On his wedding night, Reza, promised a bright future, goes to secretly reunite with his lover (Maxime Afshar). The scene is full of passion and sensuality. The police then arrive and brutally put an end to this illicit union. A wide shot of the village reveals two hanged men. Hanging on the gallows, a poster in Farsi indicates that they are “sodomites”. The image vividly sums up the fate that awaits Reza.

Romantic drama fitting perfectly into the continuity of the work of Michel Marc Bouchard, this 20e feature film by Léa Pool skillfully alternates between beauty and horror, desire and danger, hope and distress.

The idyllic scenes between lovers are followed by painful flashbacks revealing the dangers faced by Saad and Reza during their journey, as well as the humiliation, rejection and violence they experienced.

To the enchanted parentheses set in Laurent's luxurious world, the filmmaker contrasts sometimes the misery of an improvised refuge, sometimes the ambient and dehumanized grayness of the corridors of power. In this regard, the photo direction of Yves Bélanger, faithful accomplice of the late Jean-Marc Vallée, brilliantly illustrates the different universes that unfold in We will be happy.

By opting for a non-linear structure, the screenwriter thus evokes the state of mind of the two young immigrants, haunted by traumatic memories which rise to the surface in the happiest moments. Even when the future seems to smile on them, the screenwriter reminds us that nothing is perfect in their host country.

Thus, in one of the most beautiful scenes of the film, where Saad and Reza savor their happiness, resonates America criesmelancholy lament of the Cowboys Fringants. The bitter words of Jean-François Pauzé take on their full meaning more than ever.

Heavily documented, We will be happy offers an insight into the harsh reality of illegal immigrants without pushing the point, without giving a lesson, without falling into didacticism. Following the course of a moving love story, where the enigmatic Saad has the makings of a tragic hero, the offering by Michel Marc Bouchard and Léa Pool ends on a poignant note that nevertheless bears hope.

In the room

Drama

We will be happy

Léa Pool

With Mehdi Meskar, Alexandre Landry, Aron Archer

1 h 41

7/10