Three Canadian directors in competition at Montreal World Film Festival

MONTREAL – Three Canadians are among the host of international filmmakers in competition at the Montreal World Film Festival which will start Aug. 22.

Quebec directors Alain Chartrand and Mathieu Roy have had their works entered in World competition as Canadian films while Quebecer Christian Duguay’s movie is competing as a Canada-France co-production.

Filmmakers from China, Denmark, France, Croatia, the United States, Belgium, Germany, Iran, Italy, Russia and Sweden are also included in the category, which will offer 20 feature films and 11 short movies for consideration.

Chartrand’s “La Maison du pecheur” takes audiences to Quebec’s Gaspe region in 1969 and the meeting of four men who would go on to form the Chenier cell of the Front de liberation du Quebec and play a key role in the October Crisis a year later.

The group would become famous for the kidnapping and murder of Quebec labour minister Pierre Laporte.

In “L’autre maison,” Roy’s first fiction feature film tells the story of two sons struggling to cope with their elderly father. He is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and leaves his home daily to find a place he finds more comfortable.

Roy was inspired by the experience of his own father, who died in 2011, and hopes his film will spark debate.

Duguay’s “Jappeloup” chronicles a man who abandons a promising legal career to throw himself into his true passion — equestrian show jumping.

There will be 423 films shown at the festival in a variety of categories. It ends Sept. 2.

Screen and stage actress Kathleen Turner will also be honoured at the festival with a special Grand Prize of the Americas in tribute to her career.