''Felix and Meira'' (french: Félix et Meira) is a 2014 Canadian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Maxime Giroux Maxime Giroux (born 16 April 1976) is a film director from Quebec, Canada. Giroux was born in Montreal, Quebec. He has directed several short films, videoclips and commercial videos. In 2006, his film '' The Days (Les Jours)'' won the prize for be ...

, and starring

Martin Dubreuil Martin Dubreuil (born May 26, 1972) is a Canadian actor and musician from Quebec.Hadas Yaron, and Luzer Twersky. It is about an improbable affair between two

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

residents - one a married woman from a devoutly Jewish family and community, and the other a single French Canadian man with his own family issues. The film premiered in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the

2014 Toronto International Film Festival The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin's film '' The Judge'', starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert D ...

, where it won the Award for Best Canadian Film. It received numerous other film festival awards, and was nominated for five

Canadian Screen Awards The Canadian Screen Awards (french: link=no, Les prix Écrans canadiens) are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media (web series) p ...

, including Best Motion Picture.

Plot

Mile End, Montreal Mile End is a neighbourhood and municipal electoral district in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is part of the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough in terms of Montreal's municipal politics. Description Since the 1980s Mile End has been known for i ...

, a

Hasidic Jewish Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of conte ...

woman named Meira lives a repressed life, married to Shulem, who does not allow her to listen to secular music. They have a young daughter named Elishiva, but Meira confides in her friend that she does not want any more children, despite their religious duty. Word reaches Shulem, who berates Meira for shaming the small family. By chance, Meira meets Félix, a French Canadian man who has just lost his father Théodore, who at the end of his life no longer knew Félix was his son. Meira is mystified by the fact that Félix has no children, as he is single, a novel concept for her, since she comes from a culture where women have as many as 20 children. She avoids

eye contact Eye contact occurs when two people look at each other's eyes at the same time. In humans, eye contact is a form of nonverbal communication and can have a large influence on social behavior. Coined in the early to mid-1960s, the term came from ...

with him, and becomes enraged when, while they are playing

Ping-Pong Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

, Félix's sister Caroline unexpectedly arrives and sees her. Félix and Meira go out dancing. Caroline also informs Félix that their mother had an affair, drawing parallel to Félix's interest in a married woman. Eventually, Shulem sees Félix and Meira walking on a street together, rushes up behind them, and begins slapping Félix. Later, Shulem visits Félix in his apartment, informing him that if Meira and Félix re-unite, Meira will never be allowed to return to the Hasidic community. Shulem also asks Félix to keep Meira safe and cared for. Before leaving, Shulem notices a folded-up piece of paper, that Félix says was written by Théodore and never read. Shulem reads it, revealing Théodore apologized for bullying Félix to conform to the family, where he never felt comfortable. Félix and Meira take Elishiva to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

Cast

Martin Dubreuil Martin Dubreuil (born May 26, 1972) is a Canadian actor and musician from Quebec.Hadas Yaron as Meira * Luzer Twersky as Shulem * Anne-Élisabeth Bossé as Caroline * Benoît Girard as Théodore * Melissa Weisz as Ruth

Production

''Felix and Meira'' was director

's third full-length film, and he said that in writing and directing it, he learned more about his home of

. Additionally, he said he lived near

Hasidic Jews Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

on Mile End, and knew it was particularly challenging for women to leave the culture. While meeting and discussing possible stories with co-writer Alexandre Laferrière at cafes, Giroux said: "We'd see these women and men walking by, and we just didn't know anything about them." Laferrière did much of the research. Giroux assembled a cast, including actors who were once Hasidic Jews, but later gave up that faith and culture. He commented: "It's their story in a way, and I know at some point, it was difficult for them to shoot some of the scenes because it was really close to what they lived in their lives. It's tough for them to re-invent themselves and have a new life in our society." It was challenging to cast

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

-speaking actors in Montreal, but in New York, several people pointed Giroux to Luzer Twersky, who they said would be interested. The producers recommended Hadas Yaron, but as she did not speak French or Yiddish, she had to study both languages, working on Yiddish with Twersky and on French in Israel.

Release

''Felix and Meira'' premiered in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the

. It was also in competition at the

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; es, Festival Internacional de San Sebastián, eu, Donostia Zinemaldia) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in ...

, and at the

Torino Film Festival The Torino Film Festival (also called the Turin Film Festival, TFF) is an international film festival held annually in Turin, Italy. Held every November, it is the second largest film festival in Italy, following the Venice Film Festival. It was f ...

. In January 2015, it screened at the New York Jewish Film Festival. The film had a wider release in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

theatres on 30 January 2015, distributed by FunFilm, and had a limited release in the United States on 17 April 2015. It was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

on 12 May 2015. By September 2015, the film had played in over 50 festivals and 15 countries.

Reception

Critical reception

The film received positive reviews, with a 77% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 44 reviews. It was included in the list of "Canada's Top Ten" feature films of 2014, selected by a panel of film-makers and industry professionals organized by TIFF. wrote in '' La Presse'' that the film was not sensational, but subtle, sensitive, and highly interesting. Brendan Kelly, writing for ''

The Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', gave the film four stars, praising it as "so powerful precisely because it's so under-stated". Outside Canada, Joe McGovern of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'' gave it a B. Jeannette Catsoulis, writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', called it "a tenderly observed love story".

Ty Burr Ty Burr (born August 17, 1957) is an American film critic, columnist, and author who currently writes a film and popular culture newsletter "Ty Burr's Watchlist" on Substack. Burr previously served as film critic at ''The Boston Globe'' for two ...

wrote in ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' that the film avoided melodrama about cultural conflicts to focus on its characters, and criticized the

Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distrib ...

for giving the film an R rating, though there is a scene where Meira watches a couple have sex. ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

s Peter Debruge said it was easy to root for Meira's liberation, but he was not satisfied with the ending. Conversely, Jordan Hoffman, of ''

The New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in t ...

'', felt it lacked chemistry.

Accolades

The film was selected as the Canadian entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

88th Academy Awards The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015 and took place on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 5:30 p.m. PST. Dur ...

, but it was not nominated. It was a rare Canadian submission for featuring a substantial amount of Yiddish as well as French.

References

External links

*
Félix et Meira
at Cinoche.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Felix And Meira 2014 films 2014 drama films Canadian drama films 2010s English-language films Films set in Montreal Films set in Venice 2010s French-language films Yiddish-language films Films directed by Maxime Giroux Jewish Canadian films Films about Orthodox and Hasidic Jews 2014 multilingual films Canadian multilingual films 2010s Canadian films