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Living Together film image; two people sitting across from each other

Living Together

Northern Lights

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With affordable housing in short supply, young adults are increasingly struggling to find a place to call home. Halima Elkhatabi’s fly-on-the-wall documentary invites us to 15 apartments in Montreal, where a diverse assortment of potential roommates interview each other to determine their compatibility. The ensuing conversations are an intricate and at times humorous dance of self-disclosures and boundary-testing: would their potential new roomie mind their lengthy showers? How about table-saw noise? Or the need to store 100 unsorted Lego sets? Can they roll with the polycule’s visiting schedule?

Cinematographer Josué Bertolino’s candid interview footage is punctuated by shots of the bedrooms’ décor, showcasing their inhabitants’ delightfully distinct personalities. Authentic connections soon emerge as the film’s subjects gush about passions ranging from voguing to stand-up comedy to film, poetry, and Lebanese music, unveiling a rich tapestry of cultural interests. Heartfelt discussions soon unfold on the topics of white privilege, patriarchy, neurodiversity, sexuality, and mental health. Bursting with personality, Elkhatabi’s empathetic documentary presents an earnest snapshot of Montreal’s zeitgeist.

 

Presented by

Media Partner

   

Director
Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2024

Language

In French and English with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+

At International Village

19+

At Fifth Avenue

75 min
Documentary Women Directors
National Film Board of Canada

Book Tickets

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Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Nathalie Cloutier

Producer

Nathalie Cloutier

Screenwriter

Halima Elkhatabi

Cinematography

Josué Bertolino

Editor

Yousra Benziane

Original Music

Timo Vossenkaul

Halima Elkhatabi headshot; Living Together director

Halima Elkhatabi

Montreal-based writer and director Halima Elkhatabi studied at the Institut national de l’image et du son and now works in documentary and fiction film, as well as in audio documentary production. She was a co-director of the collaborative doc St-Henri, the 26th of August (2011), directed the short fiction film Nina (Canada’s Top Ten at TIFF in 2015) and authored the podcasts La route du bledChloé et Abdi, Songe d’une nuit d’hiver and La route de l’EldoradoLiving Together is her debut feature-length documentary.

Photo by Maude Chauvin

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