Cette maison is a heartbreaking journey into memory and an experimental treatment of an emotional state. Miryam Charles ― whose short film Second Generation screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019 ― has made one of the year’s most formally challenging features: a study of the horrible stasis of grief seen through a meditative lens. In a striking, stylized presentation, Charles resurrects her murdered cousin Tessa ― represented in the film by Schelby Jean-Baptiste ― to tell us about the life she was denied and have conversations with her mother, Valeska (Florence Blain Mbaye), about the cruelty of their separation. Emotional and political currents intertwine as Charles explores her own youth for warning signs. She recreates her family watching the Quebec referendum of 1995 in their Laval home while packing to leave for the United States in case the vote went in favour of separation ― and considers the contentious relationship between Haiti, Canada, and the US. Time and space collapse into a single awful moment, a chasm into which Tessa has disappeared. Cette maison is an act of reclamation, recreating Tessa in body and spirit on 16mm film so she can be remembered and heard ― by the film and by the audience ― once more.
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