Directed by Martin Laroche
Canada | 2021 | Fiction | 84 min | Albanian w/ subtitles
Film Source: Urban Group
Sponsors: Consulate General of Canada in Boston
Virtual available : Geoblocked to USA
Laughter, Martin Laroche’s slightly surreal and at times very funny film, is fourth in a line of features centered around complex female characters and their relationships with tragedies. It incorporates scenes of a full stand-up comedy routine, a woman being buried alive in a mass grave, and a musical sequence set to Michael Bublé’s 2005 song “Feeling Good” — without any of them feeling out of place. Other than a starkly horrific opening scene, the film takes place largely in suburban Montreal — in modern-looking homes, bakeries, streets and a remarkably unremarkable elderly center. In Laughter, Laroche explores the survivor guilt phenomenon — both for the victims and their persecutors — through love, laughter and time. ~Orly Yadin