“Who by Fire” Offers Urgent Truths

Who by Fire (Philippe Lesage, 2024) 4 out of 5 stars

A sprawling (but almost never excessive) coming-of-age tale in which the adults are as much in need of growth as the youth (if not more so), Who by Fire, from Québécois director Philippe Lesage (Genesis), examines inter- and intragenerational relationships with sensitivity and not a little panache. Set on a remote lake in the vast northern wilderness, the film offers stunning scenery on top of its engaging scenes. With fully committed performances, it proves a fascinating study in the many ways in which the human animal evolves and … doesn’t.

Lesage often favors long takes, and in the opening leans into that technique in a series of driving shots both inside and outside of a car. Within is a family plus one: a father, Albert (Paul Ahmarani, Arlette); his two children, daughter Aliocha (Aurélia Arandi-Longpré, Télé-Québec’s Les mutants) and son Max (Antoine Marchand-Gagnon, Encore Télévision’s Les moments parfaits); and Max’s best friend, Jeff (Noah Parker, Encore Télévision’s Six degrés). It’s clear from the lengthy hold on Jeff’s hand inching closer to that of the oblivious (and older) Aliocha’s that Jeff has a major crush. This will pay story dividends later.

It’s also clear from the intro that Albert is something of a child, himself, for when Aliocha tries to get back in after a pit stop, he continues to drive away just as she approaches the door, until finally disappearing around the bend. Ha, ha, very funny. There’s nothing wrong with an impish sense of humor, unless it’s an indication of stunted emotional character.

When the foursome arrive at their initial destination, they are met by Blake (Arieh Worthalter, The Goldman Case), who, we will soon learn, is a celebrated movie director who once collaborated with Albert on a number of well-regarded scripted films but is now mostly a documentarian. The two men go way back, and after some good-natured ribbing—which consists of Blake yelling at his friend for being late, then giving him a bear hug—everyone piles into Blake’s seaplane to head up to his remote lakeside cabin.

The two former collaborators could not be more different, even if they both share an outsize ego and immature behavior. Blake is a macho outdoorsman, while Albert is an urban intellectual. They like their wine, though, and much will flow during the visit.

Despite that description, above, the film is almost more about Noah and Aliocha and how they react to Blake and to Blake and Albert’s rivalry than about the two overgrown adolescents who claim adulthood. Noah is a budding director, himself, and hopes to learn from Blake (and pursue Aliocha), while Aliocha (whose originally male name comes from one of the heroes of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov) has her own confused motives and interests. They’re young, so we forgive their missteps. Less so the men.

Slowly, the plot unfolds through drunken dinners and vigorous daytime activities, which include hiking, hunting, and canoeing. More guests arrive, among them a prominent actress, Hélène (played by Irène Jacob, 1990s star of two great films by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski, The Double Life of Véronique and Three Colors: Red). It’s a true artists’ retreat, only with guns, arrows, and dangerous whitewater rapids.

Lesage demonstrates a keen eye for nuance and meditative mise-en-scène, even as he eventually leads us to some explosive and wrenching events, where tables are turned and expectations reversed. The title in French is “comme le feu,” which translates as “like fire,” and like the titular flame, the aftershocks of this surprisingly brutal drama linger long afterwards, leaving much more than an impression of meaning, but rather a burning sense of narrative urgency.

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator, as well as Film Festival Today's Editor. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.