micro_scope released a trailer today for their latest production Gabrielle, which is the newest film to be produced by Luc Déry and Kim McCraw, the Oscar nominated producers of Incendiesand Monsieur Lazhar. (And last year's equally good Inch'Allah.) Gabrielle is directed by Louise Archambault, whose credits include the feature Familia and a segment from 2011's The National Parks Project. The film stars Gabrielle Marion-Rivard and Incendies star Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, along with Alexandre Landry,
Benoit Gouin, Marie Gignac, Isabelle Vincent, Sébastien Ricard,
and Vincent-Guillaume Otis. The film's synopsis, described by my rough translation, is as follows: 'Students Gabrielle and Martinaremadly in love. However, their friends donot allowthem to realize their love,asGabrielleandMartinare notquite likethe others.Determined, theywill face theprejudices toexpect to livealove story thatisanything but ordinary.'
McCraw and Déry took a year off from representing Canada at the Oscar race in 2012, but they could very well be in the running this year, since Gabrielle's September 20th release date ensures that the film is eligible to qualify in the Academy's run-off for Best Foreign Language Film. Regardless of whether Gabrielle goes to the Oscars or not (we can at least presume a premiere at TIFF and a shot at the Canadian Screen Awards), it looks like another strong film from one of Canada's strongest filmmaking teams. Unfortunately, the trailer lacks English subtitles (I'll update this post when I find one that does), but Gabrielle looks like a powerful drama nevertheless.