Set in cold rural Quebec at Christmas time, we follow the coming of age of a young boy and the life of his family which owns the town's general store and undertaking business.
Benoit (Jacques Gagnon) is an adolescent in the care of his uncle, Antoine (Jean Duceppe), who runs a general store in a small mining town in Quebec. To make some extra money, Antoine doubles as the town's undertaker. During the Christmas shopping rush, Benoit helps out at the store, learning a lot about himself in the process. When he accompanies his uncle to pick up a body of a local boy who has recently died, he is faced with his own mortality, and realizes that life is fleeting.
Presented as part of our Talking Pictures series. Join filmmaker Terrance Odette and film programmer Wendy Guymer-Tutt for a post-screening discussion!
"That Mon Oncle Antoine is such a fine film only underlines the tragedy of the director's later life... What he left behind is a film to treasure." - Roger Ebert
"...the film illustrates the way a young boy sees the world and those closest to him – first through the eyes of a teenager, and later, as events change him, through the eyes of an adult." - National Film Board of Canada