"Who By Fire" by Philippe Lesage
Where there's smoke...

At first, it's just a spark, a hand clumsily searching for another hand. It's a question that goes unanswered, a piquant piece of information exchanged in the dark and in hushed tones, teasing that turns into a heated argument. After all, it's the sparks that make the fire...
 

By Tatiana Braun

In the forest

Director Philippe Lesage's Who By Fire (Comme le feu in the original French version) is a cinematic deconstruction of the psychosocial structures of a community of young people and adults in a cabin in the Quebec forest. The film makes its world premiere in the festival's Generation 14plus section, a selection that focuses on films whose narratives and cinematic language place the emphasis on children and young people. The films in this section offer a glimpse into their reality, and hold up a mirror to the adult world. One of the three Quebec films presented at the festival, Who By Fire dissects the egos of its protagonists to expose their fragile masculinities.
At the center of the film is young Jeff (Noah Parker), who is invited by his friend Max (Antoine Marchand-Gagnon) to spend time at an isolated cottage accessible only by floatplane in the woods of Quebec. Their host is Blake Cadieux (Arieh Worthalter), a renowned director, friend and former collaborator of Albert Gary (Paul Ahmarani), Max's father. Jeff takes an interest in Alyosha (Aurelia Arandi-Longpré), Max's older sister. Alyosha, named after Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, is a confident, sensitive young woman who dreams of becoming a writer. Jeff, for his part, would like to become a film director, just like their host. With them is Blake's editor and assistant, Millie, as well as Barney and Ferran, two of the cottage's employees. Later, they will be joined by Hélène Falke, a renowned actress, and her partner Eddy.

Between nature outings and intimate suppers around the big table, the tension between the adults mounts and their teasing turns - fueled by wine - into open conflict. Jeff, at first full of admiration for the director and confused by the signals he thinks he's getting from Alyosha, soon finds himself - literally and metaphorically - caught in a whirlpool of humiliation, anger and disappointment, from which he can only escape by emancipating himself from the supposed maturity and authority of the adults and their set of values.

Fire season

The sparks in this closed-door setting quickly turn into lots of little open fires, and the situation threatens to spiral out of control. But unlike German director Christian Petzold's Afire, winner of the Silver Bear at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival, which deals with similar themes, notably the fragile ego of a writer who pretends to be more tortured than he is, the fire here remains metaphorical only. The two films are comparable in terms of their setting: Afire is about a group of adults - old and new friends - who meet in a house by the Baltic Sea in summer. It hasn't rained for weeks, the forest is dry and the danger of forest fires is real.

Around the dinner table, in the garden, tensions rise: jealousy, love and resentment. Emotions flare, as do the parched forests that surround them. While Petzold drastically dramatizes the extent of the damage caused by forest fires - as a consequence of climate change and in contrast to the - in the face of this reality - petty preoccupations of his main character, the literal fire in Lesage remains controlled: it's a chimney fire or a campfire. However, the fire referred to in the film's title is certainly less destructive, but no less dangerous: "In my films, there's often a monster," confides Philippe Lesage during a meeting at the festival.

The monster here - the werewolf, if you will - seems to be Blake, the wild man, a little dark, three-day beard, checkered shirt, the director, the pilot, the would-be hunter, fisherman and kayaker, virile and unapproachable. Asked by Jeff about one of his early films, which is largely autobiographical, whether he really tried to kill his grandfather, he responds by lending him his version of the screenplay for his first big blockbuster. But beneath the surface, the monstrosity is in the details. It shows itself in Jeff's transgressions, in Albert's more or less open reproaches of Blake, in a silly joke. - Hell is other people, they say.

Around the table

The staging of suppers and communal moments at the cottage is remarkably ingenious: during these moments - of sharing, confrontation and intoxicated letting go - the camera seems to take its place at the table or in the middle of the circle, becoming a character in its own right. The dialogues between Blake and Albert, their quips that turn into verbal and ultimately literal exchanges of blows, are, for the most part, improvised.

Each dinner scene took two days to film," says the director, "and the result is impressive. Although the camera rarely gets close to the protagonists, keeping a safe distance at almost all times, the film manages to maintain suspense over its two-and-a-half-hour running time. Authentic in its dialogue, it's not afraid to explore the surreal, spiking some of its shots with "slightly magical" details, as the director puts it.

The film unmasks adults as self-pitying characters from whom no support should be expected. It can be read as a commentary on generational conflict, and an encouragement to the younger generation to actively question the authority and maturity of their elders, as well as their concepts of performative and toxic masculinity. Comme le feu is a psychological drama, full of suspense, love of cinema and the pleasure of experimentation, carried by exceptional acting that is a pleasure to watch and listen to.