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Les Filles du Roi

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Canadian Premiere

1665. Louis XIV has seen fit to send a gift to the New World: surplus women to bring succor and support to French settlers in what is now Quebec. Among them is Marie-Jeanne (Julie McIsaac), who immediately falls foul of the matronly Madame Savoie (Claire Johnstone) by making nice with a native Mohawk trader, Jean-Baptiste (Raes Calvert), and his naive young sister Kateri (Kaitlyn Yott).

A full-blown micro-budget musical, adapted from their own stage production by Urban Ink’s Corey Payette with co-writer McIsaac, Les Filles du Roi shuttles expeditiously between French, English and Mohawk; between song and speech; and between a handful of real world locations and theatrical artifice. It probably shouldn’t work but what carries it is Payette’s knack for crafting rousing and melancholy melodies, sterling singing across the entire cast, and a utopian vision of cross-cultural reciprocity to counterbalance history’s harsher narrative.

 

October 5 & 8: Q&A with director Corey Payette & crew

 

Presented by

Series Media Partner

     

Director
Cast

Kaitlyn Yott, Julie McIsaac, Raes Calvert, Chelsea Rose, Sean Sonier

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2023

Series

Northern Lights

Language

In English, French and Kanien’kéha (Mohawk) with English subtitles

Film Contact
Content Warning

Depictions of Racism, Sexually Suggestive Scene, Violence, Coarse Language

PG
102 min
Drama

Book Tickets

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Credits

Executive Producer

Corey Payette, Julie MsIsaac, Melissa Tsang

Producer

Garrett VanDusen

Screenwriter

Corey Payette, Julie McIsaac

Cinematography

Ian Mrozewski, Parham Banafsheh

Editor

Christian Díaz Durán

Production Design

Anna Shearing

Original Music

Corey Payette

Director

Corey Payette headshot

Photo by Luke Fontana

Corey Payette

Corey Payette is an interdisciplinary storyteller, writer, composer, producer, director in Film & Theatre. Since 2014 he has been the Artistic Director of Urban Ink, one of Canada’s most ambitious theatre companies. Payette wrote the music, lyrics and directed the acclaimed musicals Children of God, Les Filles du Roi, and Starwalker. He is a member of the Mattagami First Nations, with French-Canadian and Irish ancestries. Les Filles du Roi is his first feature film.

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