Before the Streets - Avant les rues

Before the Streets - Avant les rues
Film by Chloé Leriche

Canada  /  2016 / Atikamekw, French / 98 min

This is Chloé Leriche's first feature-length film. The film had a  World Premiere at the 66th Berlinale in the Generation section - competition. Before the Streets was also a closing film at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois film festival 2016.

The story line is simple: Shawnouk, a young aboriginal man, is involved in a serious crime. After escaping into the forest, he returns to his community and tries healing through traditional native rituals. Before the Streets features non-professional Atikamekw actors who perform in their own language, and in the authenticity of their village.

The film shows the revival of native culture and its traditions. It is the first dramatic feature shot in the native language of Atikamekw. It has a cast composed almost entirely of non-professional actors who live and work in the villages where the film was shot. The story takes place in Manawan, while a forest fire closes in on the nearby village of Wemotaci.

Although the film portrays a sort of "happy ending" to the conflict, a number of questions remain unresolved. Was the main hero truly healed through his brief séjour at the secluded wood grounds where native cleansing rituals were performed? How living with his secrecy would affect the rest of Shawnouk's life? What if the person killed was a native with a surviving family living at the same village as Shawnouk, would the film still conclude in a "happy ending"? Were this to happen in any other community, his father's protective involvement would have been considered a gross conflict of interest with serious subsequence, but not in this film. Is it OK for the native members to take the law into their own hands? Going beyond this film, is it OK for any Canadian professionals or communities to take the law either into their hands or how it might be interpreted by their traditional customs and believes, or even because of the family ties?

Screenplay: Chloé Leriche

Principal Cast: Rykko Bellemare, Kwena Bellemare-Boivin, Jacques Newashish, Janis Ottawa, Martin Dubreuil

Production: Les Films de l'Autre, Montréal

Festivals: Berlin, 2016

Chloé Leriche:

Chloé Leriche is a self-taught writer, director, and editor who has produced a dozen short films since 2001; her work has won several international film festival awards. She worked for Wapikoni Mobile, encouraging young people from different native tribes in Québec and Ontario to express themselves through cinema. Chloé Leriche has previousely written, directed, edited and produced several short films. Her work was screened in international film festivals. Her film Fragments ou lettre à un allemand (dont je suis amoureuse en secret) won the Creation Prize at VideoFormes (France) in 2004. Les grands (The Schoolyard) was selected at the Toronto International Film Festival, and revealed as one of the Top Ten Best Canadian short films of 2007.

The film will be released all over Quebec on April 15th, 2016.

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