Plot

In a story weaving the past and present together, Emile seeks redemption from the family he abandoned.

As a young man, Emile left his Saskatchewan farm life behind to head to college in Britain, with his brothers, the older brusque and controlling Carl and the younger sensitive Freddy, left to run the family farm. This move was despite Freddy showing greater potential and thus probably benefitting more from academic life. However, Carl wouldn't allow Freddy to leave because of his mechanical expertise which was required to tend to the farm equipment. Emile vowed to return, but never did, which affected Freddy the most. Now in early retirement, Emile, still living in Britain, travels to Victoria, Canada to accept an honorary degree from the university there. In Victoria, he decides to stay with now deceased Carl's grown daughter Nadia, and Nadia's ten-year-old daughter Maria. Emile had never made any attempt over the years to connect with Nadia or Maria, who only really know him by name. On the surface to Nadia, Emile's visit is purely a need on his part for a free bed while in Victoria, this feeling which is fostered by her last encounter with Emile when she was a child. Despite a rocky start, Emile may be able to reconnect with the family through Maria, as Nadia and Maria go through issues of their own, most specifically regarding Nadia's recent break-up with Maria's father and their resulting relocation to Victoria from Vancouver.—Huggo

A broad stylistic combination of cinéma vérité and magic realism, this movie follows Emile's life as he tries to reconnect with his last living relatives: his niece Nadia and her daughter. But Emile's past is sometimes more familiar and immediate than the world before his eyes. As he tries to re-discover the family that he abandoned long ago, he is forced to confront the anxieties in his memories, the family he betrayed and abandoned at the expense of his own happiness. Now, in the twilight of his life, Emile shapes the final chapters of his mental autobiography. Will he become an uncle and great-uncle, surrounded by the love and support of a family, or will he retreat into his world of memories and lost opportunities?