this film's festival page

*** of ****
Rated: unrated, but call it a PG
Length: 90 minutes
Writer & Director: Philippe Falardeau
Cast:
Paul Ahmarani: Christophe
Stephane Demers: Stephane
Geneviève Néron: Odile

Filmmaker Philippe Falardeau mixes mockumentary about unemployment with a political statement about the destructive corporate greed of capitalistic politics. He filmed this in 1999, but it does not represent a specific year. The audience enjoyed this tale of foibles encountered in his roommates quest to end unemployment with the 'right' job. The absurd pickiness of Engineering job ads was good for laughs, but it's truth was rather revolting. This story was inspired by the director's real former roommate, and was his statement of complaint of about how "when you loose your job, you loose your social identity," and the systemic destruction that goes with that loss in modern globalized society. This French language film was made in Quebec and will be released in France... with French subtitles. The acting is very natural, and the locations fit the story well. This is well filmed, a good story, and worth seeing.

Falardeau said that the story was obviously made up by the end because nobody's life could be that bad. Of course until then, he hadn't met me.