MONTREAL: Following its hit action flick Nitro and its wildly popular family drama C.R.A.Z.Y., Cirrus Communications is bringing an auteur story of social unrest to the big screen in 2008. The $5.4-million Comme une flamme is inspired by the massive student strike that shut down Quebec’s colleges and universities for two months in 2005 and forced Premier Jean Charest to back down from his plans to cut the province’s bursary program.

Comme une flamme, which wrapped up its Montreal shoot Nov. 14, is directed by Sébastien Rose (La vie avec mon père). It looks at the problems with Quebec’s college and university system, which hit a crisis point in 2005, through three characters: a university rector, a student leader and a professor.

‘The writers wanted to look at the state of higher education in Quebec,’ says producer Pierre Even. ‘But it’s also about the chaos that can ensue when things get out of control.’

The film is penned by Rose and his father Hubert-Yves Rose, who teaches scriptwriting at a Montreal university.

In the winter of 2005, Quebec university students mounted a massive campaign against the provincial government to protest cuts in education. More than 40,000 students from 30 student associations stopped attending classes and thousands attended demonstrations. At one protest, Charest was burned in effigy.

The film stars Alexis Martin (Un 32 aout sur terre, Les Boys III) as an idealistic film professor who begins to doubt his ability to teach because of an extremely difficult student. Frédéric Pierre plays a student leader struggling to stay at the head of a student group on the brink of striking. Raymond Bouchard (Seducing Doctor Lewis) is the university rector dealing with the growing student dissatisfaction.

‘The characters are all dealing with very difficult situations, and ultimately their three stories intersect in a very dramatic way,’ says Even.

The producers were supported by SODEC, but Telefilm Canada didn’t officially support the project. Even pulled together cash from his performance envelope to finance the film. Radio-Canada also supported Comme une flame, which will hit the festival circuit next fall.

Even adds that mixing up his production slate with action movies such as Nitro and more artistic films is part of his philosophy. ‘With Nitro, it was about having fun,’ he says. ‘But this film is very different.’

The film will be distributed by Alliance Vivafilm.