BOUNDARIES

A small gem of a film from Canada. "Boundaries" is about politics or rather it's about how politics impacts on the lives of three women involved in negotiations between delegations from Canada and the small island community of Besco to instigate mining on the island and is said to be based on real events. The women concerned are Besco's political leader, a girl working as a negotiator on the Canadian side and the perky blonde acting as mediator. In the end, the politics fade into the background as the personal lives of the women come to the fore.

What emerges is a wonderful picture of a tiny community trying to cope with the pressures of the outside world and an even finer picture of the lives of its female protagonists. Besco may look like a beautiful place, (it was actually filmed in St John's and Fogo Island standing in for Besco), but it's also a place where nothing much happens, a kind of island paradise where the only blot on the landscape is boredom.


It's beautifully photographed by Jessica Lee Gagne and writer/director Chloe Robichaud makes great use of music throughout while the three women are superbly played by Macha Grenon, Nathalie Doummar and Emily VanCamp. It's a small picture, as small in its way as the island on which the action takes place, but it has a large heart and a real sense of humour while the quality of Robichaud's writing and direction make this 'small' film one of the best I've seen this year.