I Killed My Mother

Canada’s 2009 Oscar® submission (Best Foreign Film) Dolan’s subtle, layered film about the relationship between a teenage boy and his mother hinges on that age-old truism – it’s easier to love your parents than to like them.

Chantale and Hubert, divorced mother and son, live together in a small apartment devoid of either charm or character. Hubert’s lover, Antonin has the world’s most perfect mother – smart, funny, hip and totally accepting of her son’s sexuality. In contrast Chantale is provincial, detached and absent-minded, a combination that frequently drives Hubert to distraction. His growing frustration at her apparent indifference to life and everything in it, made worse by his inability to tell her he is gay, builds to breaking point and the resultantexplosion is both predictable and, ultimately, in Chantale’s reaction, totally unexpected. Dolan displays extraordinary talent, at 21 he wrote, directed and plays the lead, his film is beautiful in its honesty and insightfulness, and will speak directly to anybody who ever battled to communicate both love and anger to a family member.