Prayer for a Lost Mitten
Jean-François Lesage
Canada | 2020 | 79 min
World premiere
Languages : French, English, Creole
Subtitles : English, French
Night falls on snow-covered Montreal. People wait and take turns at the lost property office in the city’s transport department. They have all misplaced something which, in hindsight, comes to symbolise a deeper loss. After A Mile End Tale (VdR 2013) and The Hidden River (VdR 2018), Jean-François Lesage comes back to Visions du Réel with an affectionate, melancholic and joyous film.
Night falls on snow-covered Montreal. People wait and take turns at the lost property office in the city’s transport department. They have all misplaced something which turns out to be symbolic of a deeper loss: a ‘tuque’ (in Canada, a woolly bobble hat), a photo, but also the love of the family or a loved one. In a quest which is reminiscent of that in Chronique d’un été (1960)—a founding film of 'cinéma-vérité' directed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, who were looking into the happiness of the French people—Jean-François Lesage essentially draws a chronicle of a certain humanity, with all the gentleness and benevolence that characterises his filmmaking. After A Mile End Tale (VdR 2013) and The Hidden River (VdR 2018), he comes back to the Festival with an affectionate and melancholic film that records confidences and conversations, in the street or during meals—also so cherished by Morin—while snow falls tirelessly on the muffled city.
Emilie Bujès
