Edmonton International Film Fest 2019: “And The Birds Rained Down” Review

And the Birds Rained Down is a Québécois film shows that tender romance can blossom at any age, anywhere.

When I went to see And the Birds Rained Down, Louise Archambault’s latest film, on a cold Sunday morning, I was surprised by how many elderly Francophone people had shown up. However, given what the film is about, which was adapted from Jocelyne Saucier’s novel of the same name, it makes perfect sense to me that this demographic flocked to the screening.

Tom (Rémy Girard), Charlie (Gilbert Sicotte), and Ted (Kenneth Welsh) are three hermits who live by a small lake in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue backcountry of western Québec. They make a living by growing pot and trading it with Steve (Éric Robidoux), a hotel manager, who in exchange provides them with outside goods. After his father’s funeral, Steve brings his aunt Marie-Desneige (Andrée Lachapelle), an elderly woman who has spent most of her life interned in a psychiatric hospital against her will, to the hermits’ camp to hide her from the authorities. Here she will experience true love for the first time thanks to the tender affections of Charlie.

Meanwhile, a photojournalist named Raf (Eve Landry) is in the region to do a photo-article on the lasting effects of the great wildfires that swept the region many years ago. Once the locals tell her the story of how Ted lost all of his family to the fires, Raf embarks on an investigation to find him, and this leads to her discovering the lasting effects trauma can have on people: the good, the bad, and everything else in between. 

Marie-Desneige’s relationship with Charlie gives her freedom, as they develop their feelings on equal terms and with a mutual desire for one another. I feel like a lot of modern depictions of sex onscreen are negative, abusive and/or violent acts, so it was such a breath of fresh air to see an actually consensual and loving sex scene for a change. Add to that, a beautifully sober cinematography and editing style, and the fact that these are elderly people, and this sex scene is nothing short of revolutionary.

And the Birds Rained Down feels like a fantasy wherein an idealized experience of old age is depicted. The main characters get to live out their twilight years with their autonomy, pride and dignity intact. They get to live off the land and act upon their desires as they wish. While the film does show how such a situation can breed its own problems, such as with Tom’s struggle with alcoholism, and also shows how the outside world still finds a way into the hermits’ lives, the film never loses touch with its fantasy element. The result is a poignant film that takes viewers through a whole gamete of emotions, and it will probably go down as one of my favourite films of the year.