Elie is the kind of “indie filmmaker” who periodically spends all her savings making a mediocre movie. She is also the full-time caretaker of her parents– a big part of her life because her mom has advanced dementia and her dad is blind. But then, Elie gets diagnosed with heart disease. With less than a year to live, she doesn’t have enough money to afford long term care for her parents after she’s gone.
So she has a crazy idea. She’s going to make one more film using the rest of her savings. It will be addressed to her older brother, Jacques– who ran away 35 years ago after a violent incident and has never returned– asking him to take care of their parents after she dies.
All of that? It’s not my movie. The movie I wrote is the exact movie that Elie sends to her brother. And she doesn’t intend for that story to have anything to do with her.
It’s a love story about their parents. She starts when they meet– trying to show the romance of how they started to prove they deserve his care. And tells the story of their family over 16 years, ultimately leading up to and contextualizing the violent afternoon when Jacques ran away.
There’s another twist. Elie’s heart disease advances expectedly and she won’t live to finish the film. So the movie sent to her brother is unfinished. It’s falling apart as you’re watching it. First, you notice the audio is out of synch, then Elie starts entering the frame and directing actors who play her parents. Some scenes are just storyboards. That’s how the audience comes to understand the meta-film: a plea to a missing brother, a romance amidst malice, a dying wish, and a call to life.