Year: 2004
Language: French
Format: 35mm Colour
Runtime: 82 min
Director: Ghyslaine Côté
Producer: Maxime Rémillard, Richard Lalonde
Writer: Chantal Cadieux
Cinematographer: Alexi Durand-Brault
Editor: Richard Comeau
Sound: Gregory Bolduc, Dominique Chartrand, Hans Strobl
Music: Normand Corbeil
Cast: Jacynthe Laguë, Julie Deslauriers, Ingrid Falaise, Noémie Yelle, Peter Miller, Sylvain Carrier, Brigitte Lafleur
Production Company: Remstar Productions Inc., Forum Films Inc.

A sensitive psychological drama about one woman=s courageous recovery from sexual assault, Elles étaient cinq tells the story of thirty-two-year-old Manon (Laguë), a shy, reserved office worker whose life is thrown into turmoil by the chance sighting of the man who brutally raped her fifteen years earlier. After discovering that the man has been released on semi-parole, Manon confronts her long-buried memories by gathering together her childhood friends Anne (Julie Deslauriers), Claudie (Brigitte Lafleur) and Sophie (Noémie Yelle) at the lakeside cottage where the vicious assault occurred. With their help, she hopes finally to move beyond the trauma of the past and into a hopeful and promising future.

Directed with intelligence and compassion by award-winning director Ghyslaine Côté and buoyed by Laguë's mysterious, radiant and touching performance (which earned her a Genie nomination for best actress) and Alexi Durand-Brault=s warmly evocative cinematography, Elles étaient cinq was selected to open the Montreal World Film Festival, where it received the award for Most Popular Film. It went on to gross a very respectable $1.9 million at the Quebec box office and was named one of Canada=s Top Ten of 2004 by an independent, national panel of filmmakers, programmers, journalists and industry professionals.

By: Andrew McIntosh