Legacy: The final installment in auteur trilogy

• Writer/director: Bernard Émond
• Producer: Bernadette Payeur
• Production company: ACPAV
• Key cast: Élise Guilbault, Jacques Godin
• Distributors: E1 Entertainment (Canada), Les Films Séville (Québec)
• International sales: E1 Films International
• Budget: $4.2 million

Montreal producer Bernadette Payeur plans to use La Donation’s TIFF screening as a weapon to lobby for the survival of auteur films.

‘TIFF is important because it gives auteur films credibility in an industry obsessed with box-office success,’ says Payeur. ‘It’s a card we can put on the table.’

Director Bernard Émond’s La Donation (The Legacy) follows the life of a female emergency room doctor (Élise Guilbault) who travels from Montreal to a remote Quebec village to temporarily replace the local doctor (Jacques Godin). When the country doctor dies, she’s confronted with the decision to settle in the dying mining town or leave.

This film is the third in a trilogy about faith, hope and charity. La neuvaine (The Novena) was in 2005, followed by 2007’s Contre toute espérance (Summit Circle).

‘My impression is that it’s hard to make real auteur cinema in Quebec these days,’ says Payeur. ‘We focus more on supporting the industry of filmmaking rather than the art form.’

The producer believes government funders have abdicated their responsibility to support artistic cinema. ‘Bernard is very established, but he still worries about whether he will be able to make his films,’ she explains.

Payeur points to two recent Quebec auteur films which screened at the prestigious Cannes fest but didn’t get support from Telefilm Canada – Xavier Dolan’s prize-winning J’ai tué ma mère and Denis Côté’s Carcasses.

‘I feel as though the auteur filmmaking community is suffocating,’ Payeur says. ‘We don’t have enough air to survive.’

Émond picked up three prizes at Locarno: the Don Quichotte prize, the Youth Jury prize and the Quality and Environment prize.