Genie and Jutra award-winning writer/director Philippe Falardeau is probing the complexity of childhood love – and loss – in C’est pas moi, je le jure! (It’s Not Me, I Swear!), his latest feature.

C’est pas moi is about Léon, a 10-year-old, heartsick, rather delinquent boy abandoned by his mother in the summer of 1968.

Shooting of the $4.8-million drama has begun in suburban Montreal and wraps Oct. 4, with a release planned for the fall of 2009 by distrib Christal Films.

Its 39-year-old director adapted the story from two novels by Quebec writer Bruno Hébert, including one of the same title, and Alice court avec René (Alice Runs with René).

Falardeau says C’est pas moi is ‘less cerebral’ than Congorama (Christal), his 2006 comic drama about a Belgian man who returns to Quebec to find his birth parents. ‘This script is much richer in terms of emotions,’ he told Playback a few days before shooting began.

‘When Léon’s mother leaves, he transfers his love to a little girl,’ explains Falardeau. ‘So although his mother is gone, her presence is everywhere.’

Although Léon analyzes his world with candour and sardonic wit, Falardeau compares the film to Lasse Hallström’s dark comedy My Life as a Dog (1985), because the boy is also self-destructively despondent and makes four suicide attempts through the course of the narrative. ‘He simply doesn’t know how or where to channel his strong emotions,’ says the director.

Producer Luc Déry of Montreal’s micro_scope is pleased the auteur film received funding from Telefilm Canada and SODEC after its first request.

‘Congorama was invited to Cannes and the script for [C’est pas moi] was very good, so the timing was excellent,’ Déry explains, adding that the team ‘got less money than we asked for, so we had a budget gap of around $700,000.’ The gap was filled with coin from The Harold Greenberg Fund, Radio-Canada, Super Écran and Cogeco, and Christal.

Public funders often say films with commercial potential are a priority, however, Déry believes Telefilm and SODEC are still committed to more artistic, independent films.

‘It depends on the year, but there does seem to be a certain amount of equanimity,’ he says.