Year: 1967
Language: French
Format: 16mm Colour
Runtime: 28 min
Director: Marcel Carrière
Producer: Robert Forger
Cinematographer: Alain Dostie, Bernard Gosselin
Editor: Werner Nold
Sound: Serge Beauchemin
Music: Don Douglas
Production Company: National Film Board of Canada

In 1867, when Pope Pius IX called for volunteers to defend the papacy from the troops of King Victor-Emmanuel, Quebec duly sent a contingent of 503 men. This comic-opera view of the annual summer camp of the Quebec Zouaves (“the soldiers of the Pope”) was intended as a recording of the centenary of this event but functions more as a reflection of contemporary attitudes toward the Catholic Church than as an homage to a Quebec cultural institution. Hardly a balanced documentary, its wicked wit was bitterly denounced by the Zouaves and others upon its release for showing only the “negative side” and ignoring the “positive and cultural aspects” of their activities.

By: Andrew McIntosh