Shraddha Diwan
For movie fans that gives a voice to people who don’t usually have it on screen.
Directed by: Louise Archambault Cast: Kenneth Welsh, Andrée Lachapelle, Gilbert Sicotte, Rémy Girard, Ève Landry, Éric Robidoux, Louise Portal Original title: Il pleuvait des oiseaux
Country: Canada Year: 2019 Release date: 03-05-2021 Genre: Drama Script: Louise Archambault Photography: Mathieu Laverdière Synopsis:This is the story of three old men who have chosen to withdraw from the world and live in the forests of Canada. As a great fire threatens the region, someone comes to his hiding place: a young photographer looking for a certain Boychuck. And it is not the only one. Soon after, a woman in her 80s appears like a light breeze that will upset their lives. As they try to understand Boychuck’s history through his paintings, something extraordinary will emerge between them all.
☆☆☆☆☆ 3/5
The best: his description of the characters and spaces.
The worst: it is somewhat washed out when it poses conflicts.
Based on the novel by Jocelyne Saucier, Canadian filmmaker Louise Archambault (Gabrielle) composes a film in which the secondary characters become protagonists and the stories that often go unnoticed, in the only stories that matter. And it rained birds makes exceptional the quiet and resigned routine of a group of old men, practically hermits, who live in a forest in Quebec.
The director leisurely explores the universe of the characters and the decisions that have led them to isolate themselves. It is there, in his drawing of these people, how they face life and death, their sense of happiness and their way of relating to the physical landscape (the forest as something alive and decisive) where the film makes sense. Archambault accurately describes the characters and choreographs their physical and emotional movements beautifully. And it rained birds, however, it is more inconsistent and washed-out when it abandons the distanced portrait to propose conflicts and solutions.
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Plot and Thematic Depth
And It Rained Birds (originally “Il pleuvait des oiseaux” in French) is a Canadian film that explores themes of aging, freedom, and the enduring human need for connection. Based on Jocelyne Saucier’s acclaimed novel, the story follows three elderly hermits living in the remote forests of northern Ontario who have chosen to spend their final years on their own terms, far from the institutions and social expectations that typically define old age. Their peaceful existence is disrupted by the arrival of a photographer documenting survivors of the Great Matheson Fire of 1916 and a mysterious elderly woman fleeing institutional care.
The film’s treatment of aging is refreshingly respectful and nuanced. Rather than portraying its elderly characters as frail, pitiable, or in need of rescue, the film presents them as fully autonomous individuals making conscious choices about how to live and, ultimately, how to die. Their decision to live in the wilderness is not an act of desperation but an assertion of freedom and dignity, a refusal to surrender their autonomy to the well-meaning but often dehumanizing structures of elderly care.
Direction and Visual Style
Director Louise Archambault captures the northern Ontario landscape with a photographer’s eye for light, texture, and composition. The forests, lakes, and skies of the region become characters in their own right, their changing moods reflecting the emotional states of the human characters who inhabit them. The visual style is unhurried and contemplative, matching the pace of the characters’ lives and inviting viewers to slow down and pay attention to the small, beautiful details that define existence in close communion with nature.
The performances across the cast are uniformly excellent, with veteran actors bringing decades of life experience to characters who have lived rich, complicated lives. The chemistry between the hermits feels genuinely organic, their shorthand communication and comfortable silences suggesting years of shared solitude and mutual understanding. The film’s emotional climax arrives not through dramatic incident but through quiet revelations and gentle acts of courage that feel all the more powerful for their understatement. A deeply moving and beautifully crafted film that deserves wider recognition.
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