kviff.com
News
Festival Guide
  • Tickets and Festival Pass
  • Accommodations
  • Transportation
  • Festival cinemas
  • No Barriers project
  • Kids at the festival
  • Festival Shop
Program
  • Catalogue of films
  • Accompanying programme
  • Archive of films
  • Audience award
  • KVIFF Talks
  • Film Entry
Film Industry
  • Industry accreditation
  • Film Industry at KVIFF
  • Industry Days Programme
  • KVIFF Eastern Promises
  • KVIFF Talents
Press
  • Press accreditation
  • Press Service
  • For download
  • Press releases
  • Photogallery
  • Videogallery
About the festival
  • Festival description
  • Programme sections
  • Awards
  • History
  • We support non-profits
  • Photogallery
  • Partners
  • Why We Support the Festival
  • Contacts
CZ
Sign in
Film Archive

Laurentia

Official Selection - Out of Competition 2011 / Laurentie / Canada 2011

A youth named Louis lives in Montreal. He has no interests, real friends, or even dreams. His only hobby is perusing porn for the purpose of pleasuring himself. Louis’s frustration grows. The young man’s internal and external drama is told by means of an elegant style that employs long shots.

Laurentia Laurentia

Synopsis

A youth named Louis lives in Montreal. He has no interests, real friends, or even dreams. His only hobby is perusing porn for the purpose of pleasuring himself. Louis begins to show signs of  frustration. After moving to a new apartment he discovers that his new neighbor is his exact opposite: surrounded by friends, the good-looking young man is entertaining and obviously happy. His encounter with this guy evokes new impulses in obsessive Louis that eventually change his life. Laurentia is a drama which lays bare the absolute emptiness of life in contemporary society. The internal and external drama of Louis’s existential path is told through a refined, ascetic style employing long shots and a bare minimum of dialogue. Thanks to its formal aspects, Laurentia can be classed as spiritual cinema in that it offers a complex look at sex, death, and life’s spiritual dimension. In terms of its tone, the work is reminiscent of Carlos Reygadas’s Battle in Heaven (Batalla en el cielo, 2005).

About the film

120 min / Color, DCP
World premiere

Director Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie / Screenplay Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie / Dir. of Photography Nicolas Canniccioni / Editor Mathieu Denis / Producer Nancy Grant, Sylvain Corbeil, Pascal Bascaron / Production Metafilms / Cast Emmanuel Schwartz, Eugénie Beaudry, Guillaume Cyr, Martin Boily, Jade Hassouné, Simon Gfeller, Erin Agostino / Contact FunFilm Distribution

About the director


Mathieu Denis, who studied film in Montreal and editing in France, and also worked with directors Pierre Schoendoerffer and Claude Miller. Prior to this, Denis was an editor on short films, and his feature editing debut came with Le déserteur (2008), directed by Simon Lavoie. In addition to editing, he has shot two short films, Silent Remains (2006) and Code 13 (2007), which received multiple prizes. He wrote and directed Laurentia with colleague Simon Lavoie, who was born in Québec. For his first short film, Nearness (2003), he was awarded best short film of the year by the Québec Film Critics Association. Then followed the short film Until Down (2004) and the medium-length A White Chapel (2005). His feature directing debut came in 2008: Le déserteur. Laurentia is his second feature.

Contacts

FunFilm Distribution
5146, boul. St-Laurent, H2T 1R8, Montreal, Quebec
Canada
Phone: +1 514 272 495 6
Fax: +1 514 272 984 1
E-mail: [email protected]

Guests

Brigitte Hubmann
Film Institution Rep.

Simon Lavoie
Film Director

Mathieu Denis
Film Director

Emmanuelle Dessureault
Sales Agent

Nancy Grant
Producer

Carolle Brabant
Film Institution Rep.

Other partners
Newsletter

First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.

Follow us on the web:

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
is part of the KVIFF Group family, which covers other projects as well:

© 2025 KVIFF GROUP

Rules for Visitors / Website visitors privacy policy / GTC / Personal Data Protection / Rules for Claim / Rules and Regulations / Contacts