94 minutes – Drama, Comedy, Fantasy,
Language: French, English subtitles
Festival release date:  August 4, 2024 – Fantasia (World Premiere)
Release date: August 23, 2024 – Québec
Production companies:
Canadian distributor: Filmoption International

Michel Paquette, 12 ans, atteint de polio foxe la messe du dimanche pour lire de la poésie aux éditions St-Amour et fille.  Son vieux compagnon, Archange St-Amour, souffrant de parkinson a besoin de Michel pour l’aider à typographier Vive le Québec Laïque, un pamphlet anticlérical dans le Québec de la grande noirceur. Le pamphlet scandalise le clergé.  La vengeance de l’Église n’est rien comparée à celle qui bouillonne chez Michel et ses amis.  Les jeunes font les 400 coups en défiant l’ordre clérical et risquent le tout pour le tout pour leur quête d’un Québec laïque et égalitaire.

It is 1957 and in Catholic Québec, a revolution is taking shape. It isn’t about separation from TROC (the Rest of Canada), that would come later. This is more about the separation of church and state. Enter 12-year-old Michel Paquette, who has polio and skips Sunday mass to read poetry at the local printer, St-Amour et fille. Archange St-Amour, who suffers from Parkinson’s, needs Michel to help him print Vive le Québec Laïque, an anticlerical pamphlet in a Quebec during a time of the great darkness. The pamphlet scandalizes the clergy. The vengeance of the Church is nothing compared to that which bubbles up in Michel and his friends who defy the clerical order and risk everything for their quest for a secular and egalitarian Québec.

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Ababouiné, the latest film from André Forcier, was selected to be the closing night feature at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.