RESURRECTING HASSAN 
Quebec/Chile, 2016
French, English and Russian with English subtitles | 100 min
Director/Writer/Producer/Cinematographer: Carlo Guillermo Proto

Sunday, Sep 3
1:00 PM | The Cinematheque

With great passion, the three members of the Harting family make a living singing a cappella ballads in the Montreal metro. All three are blind and haunted by the tragic drowning death of six-year-old Hassan, the only sighted member of their family. Enter Russian mystic and cult-like leader Grigori Petrovitch Grabovoï, who promises to help his followers regenerate and resurrect the dead. For the Hartings, Hassan’s resurrection is their only hope for completing their family once more. With intimate access and unflinching observations, the film chronicles the Hartings’ attempts at dealing with their collective grief. What emerges is a highly unusual family portrait of three complex yet captivating characters.

“Carlo Guillermo Proto has made an intense but unsensational film that follows a uniquely endearing family, deeply torn between insight, guilt and mysticism.” RIDM

Les Harting sont non-voyants. Il y a Denis, le père, passionné de musique, Peggy, la mère, rêvant d’une nouvelle vie, et Lauviah, la fille, qui se fraie un chemin entre l’enfance et l’âge adulte. Tous trois chantent dans le métro de Montréal, et sont hantés par une même absence: celle de Hassan, le petit garçon et seul voyant de la famille, tragiquement décédé quelques années auparavant. Ils puisent espoir et courage en écoutant les leçons d’un mystique russe sur la résurrection. Carlo Guillermo Proto signe un film à fleur de peau, qui parvient à accompagner sans jugement ni pathos une famille aussi singulière qu’attachante, profondément déchirée entre lucidité, culpabilité et mysticisme. Hantés par un passé parfois difficile, ils poursuivent coûte que coûte leur quête de sérénité. (ACO)

Carlo Guillermo Proto (Toronto, 1979) is a Chilean-Canadian director who was raised in both Quillota, Chile and Mississauga, Ontario. He is the director of the documentaries El Huaso (2012) and Resurrecting Hassan (2016), which won Best Canadian Feature at RIDM: Montreal International Documentary Festival and the Special Jury Prize for a Canadian Feature at Hot Docs.

COMMUNITY PARTNER

Cineworks logo