Krista LIEBE
Special to the Tribune
The Williams Lake Film Club will offer the fourth film in its present Canadian Series this coming Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. The film will be screened at the Central Cariboo Arts Centre at 7 p.m., doors open at 6:30 p.m.
My Internship in Canada (truly a boring English title for the French Canadian film Guibord s’en va-t-en Guerre) is a sharp little comedy filmed in Val-d’Or, Québec, in French and English, with English subtitles when necessary. It runs for 108 minutes and is rated PG.
It was first released in 2016 in Germany. Within the film industry it has become quite popular to have first releases of North American films in Berlin to gauge the reaction of the audience. This highly-anticipated film by director Philippe Falardeau, who was nominated for an Oscar for his film Monsieur Lazhar and starring in the main role Patrick Huard of Starbuck and Bon Cop Bad Cop fame, fell a bit flat on the audience. My Internship really is a quintessential Canadian film, always with a “sorry” around the next corner. You really can enjoy the beautiful countryside and the familiar squabbles of various groups in town hall meetings. It is a greatly amusing Canadian satire about democracy and how far we drift from the principles we espouse and prefer to turn to local problems instead. It raises some very important points about how qualified and informed people really are.
The story is like this - Guibord is an independent Member of Parliament who represents a vast county in northern Québec. As the entire country watches, Guibord unwillingly finds himself in the awkward position of holding the decisive vote to determine whether Canada will go to war in the Middle East.
Accompanied by his wife, his daughter and an idealistic intern from Haiti named Souverain, Guibord travels across his district in order to consult his constituents. He is strongly courted by both liberals and conservatives and his district includes right leaning miners, loggers and truckers as well as left leaning First Nations and peace protesters. All want their way with Guibord. There is a great scene with a Harper look-alike. Souverain sends regular Skype updates to family and friends in Haiti, educating them on Canadian geography, history and political sciences. As the situation intensifies, Souverain’s audience in Port-au-Prince grows exponentially, becoming increasingly invested in the goings on in Canada. Altogether, the film expertly balances both sides of the war debate.
After the film refreshments will be available for free: tea, hot chocolate, even Ovaltine, and an assortment of cookies. Do you have some cookies you would like to share? Admission at the door is $10 adults regular, $8 for Film Club members, and $6 for seniors (65+) and students: high school and TRU. Proceeds are being used to support one-on-one tutoring for students.
At this time we have three tutors helping eight students.
Remember, this film will be screening on Friday, Feb. 23. See you there.