Pays

The fictional island country of Besco (population 170,000) is a place just off Canada's east coast that seems to have frozen in time a few decades ago. Now Besco's natural resources are up for imminent exploitation by a foreign company. Emily Price (Emily VanCamp) is an American mediator of the negotiations between Besco's president, Danielle Richard (Macha Grenon), and a Canadian government minister, who is aided behind the scenes by his deputy, Félixe (Nathalie Doummar). The daily negotiations take place at a primary school (the area's only neutral space large enough). Squished into student desks, the politicians argue fervently, each with their share of one-sided statistics and studies. Input from lobbyists, ministries, unions, and workers only muddies the waters as they try to resolve the question: in whose interest would the mining truly be? Whenever progress is made in one area, new quarrels arise in the next, making an agreement increasingly unlikely. (Toronto International Film Festival)