THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (2003) (****)
This film won the Oscar for best foreign language film last year. This is actually a sequel to director Denys Arcand's 1986 film THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE, which I have not seen. However, one doesn't have to have seen the first film to enjoy the second. This film only catches up with the characters when they are older.
Remy (Remy Girard, LES BOYS) is dying. The former playboy was working as a university professor before he got sick. His ex-wife Louise (Dorothee Berryman, THE RED VIOLIN) calls their son Sebastien (Stephane Rousseau, LES DANGEREUX) to come to be with his father. He leaves his high-paying oil trading job in London to come to Quebec with his fiancée Gaelle (Marina Hands, FIDELITY). He's angry with his father for being who he is – a womanizer and a liberal. Sebastien has become a good capitalist, which is probably the exact opposite of his father. But isn't that how it always is. Louise encourages Sebastien to round up Remy's old friends so they can be with him in his last days.