MONTREAL — Expectations are high for Quebec producer Roger Frappier’s Dédé, à travers les brumes — a film about the troubled life of André ‘Dédé’ Fortin, a vocal nationalist and front man for iconic rock group Les Colocs, which dominated the Montreal music scene in the 1990s.

Although Jean-Philippe Duval wrote and directed Dédé, the original idea to tell the talented and charismatic musician’s tragic story — he stabbed himself to death in 2000 — was Frappier’s. ‘He is an important part of Quebec’s cultural history. We need to keep his story alive,’ Frappier told the numerous film and music journalists gathered at a press screening this week at the Ex-Centris cinema in downtown Montreal.

‘Fortin is part of who we are,’ echoed Sébastian Richard, the actor and musician who plays Fortin. Richard believes the film is politically important because it looks at the period leading up to and immediately after the 1995 referendum. ‘It is good for people to see those images of the referendum. To see that we almost won.’

Fortin and Les Colocs campaigned for the ‘Yes’ side in 1995. The film includes a scene from referendum night, when a devastated Fortin, preparing to launch an album and do a victory concert, learns that the ‘No’ side won by a small margin.

Les Colocs (Quebec slang for ‘roommates’) integrated rock, reggae and hip hop into their songs, which touched on themes such as poverty, unemployment and globalization. While Fortin was a committed nationalist, his music was heavily influenced by the multicultural, urban and bohemian culture of Montreal’s Plateau neighborhood of the 1990s. His band’s lineup was atypical for a Quebec Francophone group and included a Cree from Saskatchewan, a Belgian and a French Catalonian.

It took more than six years to bring his story to the big screen. Initially conceived as a documentary, the filmmakers interviewed more than one dozen people in Fortin’s entourage, including girlfriends, fellow band members and family.

Distributor TVA Films’ Yves Dion says parent company Quebecor will use its many media properties to sell the film. ‘Because of media convergence we will get at least $1 million worth of publicity from this campaign. Although we won’t spend that much,’ he says.

Quebec’s daily newspapers are abuzz with talk of the film, due in theaters March 13. This Sunday, Richard will appear on the TV talent contest Star Academie — the flagship show of Quebecor’s TVA network.

TVA Films will release a video clip this week and, on Saturday, dozens of pages in Quebecor tabloids Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec will be dedicated to the film and its cast, which has been touring the province all week. Dion estimates that Richard will do more than 100 media interviews as part of the 10-day campaign.