Director’s Point of View

The dramatic stages of this film are strongly rooted in the emotions of anyone who is able to: believe in childhood dreams; become widowed very young by a first love; feel obliged to leave a child to accomplish a destiny; leave a rich and comfortable country to build another while facing the cold and unknown; live the loss of everything in a fire, including best friends and companions; see a best friend die; see oneself abandoned by the government that had given its support; be stranded all alone at the other end of the world; and still persist until death and finally be able to say: "Mission accomplished."

If you ask me why a film based on Marie Guyart is so close to my heart, I will answer by saying: because she is real, and because she has risked her life on this drastic quest for the truth. It is my opinion that this is also a film which accurately depicts the mystical aspect of the human personae. There have been some film narratives about these Christian superstars with their visions and their dreams, but little about the emotions that these divine interventions provoke. What I propose is original and has been little exploited. The mystical aspect is often used for horror movies or demonic films where the devil calls out to a human. These films have excellent success at the Box Office. The opposite phenomenon has rarely been exploited. It seems to me that adapting the different stages of Marie Guyart’s life for the screen, the way she has confidentially depicted it to her son, will result in a unique vision and a very great drama that will touch a majority of the viewers.

The screenplay is based on authentic historical writings; at least Marie Guyart believed in it enough to write it down. The "Relation autobiographique de 1654" of our main character is considered to be one of " the greatest mystical works in French literature ". It is about a mother who confides to her son in the greatest intimacy. We base our dramatic hypothesis on this approach : "And if all that were true?" For three centuries, the studies on Marie Guyart have continued to grow, never ceasing to captivate.

The originality of our approach rests on the understanding of the texts, the different studies, and on lengthy reflection, which has slowly ripened and gradually matured after several years; thus the playwright’s idea has unfolded. A woman receives a message, she responds to it according to her understanding; her response is translated into social action, resulting in consequences into which she is further enmeshed, where she must make another choice of action, and so on.

Marie Guyart is an exceptional woman. She is considered by many to be the " Mother of Canada ". It is entirely possible that without her and her work, Canada might not have the same identity. The French would have perhaps have lost interest in Canada in 1649. As you will see, Marie Guyart has stayed to " hold down the fort ", as the saying goes.

The people who will go to see this film will not necessarily be those well-versed in history or in historical reinactments. These will be people in search of their identity, both adults and adolescents, all of whom question the existence of a divine presence or cosmic force in their lives. Many people have someone close to them who have had mystical experiences. Everyone will ask the same question after the film : " Yes, but is this true? Is this life true in the manner that Marie Guyart tells it? " The strength of the film is that this question has existed since the beginnings of man; the enigma has remained unresolved since the first philosophical writings. A well- presented production on Marie GUYART will be universal, because she brings us back to these fundamental questions.

Treatment

In Europe, the decors are rich, luxurious, and warm, which will require colourful pictures and meticulous costumes set in a sophisticated architecture, equally coupled with warm and reassuring lighting. Everything reflects the richness, comfort, and ease of life in Europe. In Canada, nature in its pure state is offered to Marie Guyart. Let’s not forget that when she arrived in 1639, there are only two-hundred-fifty French settlers along the banks of the great St. Lawrence river. From the moment of her arrival, she immediately notes a great contrast between the Europe she left and the new land, with its intense cold and ice with which she is not at all familiar, as well as disease, hunger, and day-to-day dependency. All in all, this is translated into realism by small details and gestures.

The fact that these " experimental communications ", as Marie GUYART qualifies her divine visions, cease completely on the Canadian land, requires us to become almost over-realistic in the contacts that she would have with the natives. This is why we who have always lived near the Huron-Wendat reservation have been able to unite with the authentic natives who take this film to heart, since Marie GUYART tells also their story, describes their ancestral way of life and their spiritual approach, in other words, depicts the authenticity of their culture.