The Cinematheque

Free Admission

“The first true masterpiece of Quebec cinema.”

Robert Lévesque, Québec-Presse

Michel Brault’s second fiction feature, a Kafkaesque political drama set during a dark chapter of our modern history, is one of Canadian cinema’s great works. Following the imposition of the War Measures Act in October 1970, five innocent people are arrested, held without charge, and subject to various humiliations. Les ordres is based on the actual experiences of many of the over 450 Quebecers detained during the crisis. Brault, among Canada’s finest cinematographers and foremost practitioners of cinéma direct, mixes fiction and documentary techniques to create a film of bracing urgency. He has his actors introduce themselves and their characters, and then intersperses ​“interviews” with those characters throughout the drama. The result is a harrowing portrait of liberal democracy gone askew. Les ordres remains the only Canadian film to win the Best Director prize at Cannes. It also won Canadian Film Awards for Best Feature, Director, and Screenplay.

In French with English subtitles

One of the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time
TIFF Annual Poll (1984, 1993, 2004, 2015)

“A crowning achievement in the director’s prolific career.”

Harvard Film Archive