Maman est chez le coiffeur (Mommy's at the Hairdresser)

2008. Canada. Directed by Léa Pool. Screenplay by Isabelle Hébert. With Marianne Fortier, Céline Bonnier, Laurent Lucas, Gabriel Arcand. Pool, who has earned an international following with such films as Anne Trister (1986) and Set Me Free (1999), has crafted an astringent, unsentimental tale about a pubescent girl whose world crumbles, one summer in the 1960s, with her parents' separation. Sustained by the beauty of the Quebec countryside and the grudging friendship of a strange man, she attempts to keep her shell-shocked father and brothers from complete social retreat—but her admirable gumption is severely tested. In French; English subtitles. 99 min.