Paul à Québec

Paul, the alter ego of celebrated Canadian cartoonist Michel Rabagliati, receives a perfect cinematic translation in Paul à Quebéc, a charming and wryly funny adaptation of his semi-autobiographical graphic novel "The Song of Roland." It's 1999. Paul (award-winning actor and playwright François Létourneau, "Série Noire") is a graphic designer who lives in Montreal with his girlfriend Lucie (Julie LeBreton, SIFF 2012's Starbuck) and young daughter Rose. Every June they travel to Saint-Nicolas near Québec City to spend Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day weekend with Lucie's extended family. This year, however, comes with some bad news: Her retired father Roland (Gilbert Sicotte, The Salesman) has cancer, and though mother Lisette (Louise Portal, The Decline of the American Empire) insists the disease is manageable, it's not long before it's revealed he hasn't long to live. As everybody comes together for the patriarch's final days, Paul learns more about his father-in-law, from his troubled childhood to his emotionally complicated present, and is thus inspired to tell Roland's story the only way he knows how—through comics. A tragicomedy of enormous power, Paul à Quebéc employs deeply rooted empathy and a marvelous sense of humor to underscore what it means to be human, blemishes and all. (Seattle International Film Festival)