The Fireflies Are Gone

It is near the end of high school, and Léo (Tremblay) dreams of escape. She feels stuck in her small-town, industrial Québécois life. The easiest target for her frustrations is her stepdad, a local talk-radio celebrity on the wrong side of a political divide that forced her union-organizing father out of town. Léo misses her father and yearns to leave, but her rebellion du jour only seems to manifest itself as a feeling of uneasiness. Enter Steve (Pierre-Luc Brillant, C.R.A.Z.Y), a much older metal-head who still lives in his mother’s basement. Léo is fascinated and sees in him much more than the archetypal loser he may appear to be. As their relationship grows over the summer, an ever-present longing lingers beneath the surface of their friendship — and Léo must decide how to express her deep desire for something more. However, the tenacious vigour of Léo’s teenage angst, brought to life by the magnetic Tremblay, sets this film apart from the director’s earlier work. Winner of the Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film at TIFF 2018, this film revels in exquisite close-ups and dreamy musical flourishes that harkens back to classic melodramas; Pilote creates an evocative pop fantasy amidst the customary political tensions in a small Québec town.