Alain Farah, a professor in McGill’s Département des littératures de langue française, might be an award-winning novelist, but he remembers growing up in a house without books.
“There were no books in the house besides the medical dictionary, so I encountered culture through TV and later through the [movie theatres],” he says. “I always had a strong desire to one day write a script. When Philippe Falardeau contacted me four years ago, it was my magical opportunity at last.”
Falardeau, one of Quebec’s most critically acclaimed filmmakers whose work includes Monsieur Lazhar and My Salinger Year, wanted to adapt Farah’s novel Mille secrets mille dangers, an expansive novel about a Lebanese immigrant family in Montreal.
The book opens on the wedding day of Alain and Virginie, but drifts into memories as Alain, dealing with severe anxieties, is plunged back into the world of his younger self. The book quickly became a bestseller in Quebec and won a number of prizes, including the Governor General’s Literary Award for Literature in 2022.
“I always had a strong desire to one day write a script. When Philippe Falardeau contacted me four years ago, it was my magical opportunity at last.”
Alain Farah, an associate professor in McGill’s Département des littératures de langue française
Falardeau connected to Farah’s characters. “The emotions were close to me. Chronic anxiety, for one, was something I had to deal with when I was younger. The book dealt with it in a very humorous way,” he says. “I’ve always been interested in the migrant story, but this was very different because it’s second-generation immigrants. The character is very much a Quebecer, but he has to carry the weight of his parents’ culture on his shoulders.”
Falardeau doesn’t typically work with other writers on the scripts for his projects, but it made sense to collaborate with Farah in this instance. “Dealing with material that’s not necessarily mine, like I was not born from Lebanese parents, it made sense, and [Farah] was very much into it.”
Casting became integral to bringing Farah’s characters to life onscreen. Rose-Marie Perreault, who plays Virginie, is one of Quebec’s most recognizable young actors, but the rest of the cast will be less familiar to viewers here. Many have worked in France or on Lebanese television.
Among them is actress Hiam Abou Chedid, a Lebanese actress who moved to Montreal after the devastating port explosion in 2020. She wasn’t even meant to be in the film initially, but after being asked to help find Lebanese actors in Montreal she volunteered herself for the role of Yolande, Alain’s high-strung, but passionate mother.
“The first take, I knew it was her,” says Falardeau. “She’s one of the greatest actors I’ve worked with.”
Falardeau worked with cinematographer André Turpin on Mille secrets mille dangers and the resulting film has a golden glow. Shot in part at the Orange Julep and St. Joseph’s Oratory, the film toys with iconography without indulging in clichéd images, forging new ways of seeing familiar spaces.
“A lot of filmmakers have been avoiding those places because we’re afraid of the postcard effect,” says Falardeau. The domes of the Oratory, in particular, are used to expressionistic effect in the film’s climax. Even for those familiar with the space, it almost feels like seeing it for the first time.
Farah has long had a passion for Quebec cinema, even teaching a survey class on Quebec cinema at McGill. Talking about his students, he mentions how much contemporary filmmakers like Xavier Dolan and Jean-Marc Vallée resonated with them. “Being in university, but being able to talk about real life and what’s happening in creation, is very exciting.
“My take on Quebec cinema is that, whereas in many ways we suffer from a minority status, in cinema what happened in Quebec [in the 50s and 60s] was so important for artists in cinema across the world,” he explains. “I’m talking about the [Quebec contributions to the groundbreaking documentary series] Candid Eye and the work at the NFB. Cinéma direct.”
Farah is right to point to these eras as redefining the language of world cinema; the films of Quebec directors like Gilles Groulx, Claude Jutra and Michel Brault were profoundly influential. Using handheld cameras, synchronised sound and embracing a local perspective, films like Golden Gloves and Le chat dans le sac embraced new ways of imagining the world. Farah also fell in love with the haunting magical realism of Jean-Claude Lauzon and the stark political vision of Anne-Claire Poirier.
Farah also remembers his first encounter with Falardeau’s work. “In the early 2000s when La Moitié gauche du frigo [directed by Falardeau] came out, I was a literature student at UQAM. I remember going to see this movie and I always felt so close to it, I never actually thought we’d end up working together,” he says.
Falardeau gives Farah high marks for his first foray into screenwriting. “It went super well, I think because he knows so much about cinema and Quebec cinema in particular.” But the director was concerned about Farah’s expectations for the film – especially because the book it was based on did so well.
“He wrote a book that’s a bestseller in Quebec,” says Falardeau. “It’s a huge bestseller, it won the Governor’s General Award. And I said to him, I’m not sure [the film will] be a big box office hit.”
The pair’s collaboration has drawn praise from film critics. Le Devoir says Falardeau and Farah have succeeded in adapting the book “with finesse, humanity, and humor.” According to La Presse, the film “skillfully conveys to the audience the sense of suffocation Alain feels. Yet, it’s full of warmth [and] laughter.”
After the movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, it has been screening in theatres in Quebec. “It’s showing all across the province,” says Farah. “People are going to the theatre and sending us messages and Philippe and I are sharing them, having fun and feeling grateful – depending on what kind of messages we get.”
