Battle of the Brave (Nouvelle-France)

Released in French as Nouvelle-France (“New France”), Battle of the Brave came out in 2004 as a historical romance and drama. A co-production between France, the United Kingdom and Canada, it cost about CA$30 million, making it Quebec’s costliest film to that date. English and French versions were shot at once. It was directed by Jean Beaudin, whose earlier work includes Le Matou, from a script by Pierre Billon and Gilles Carle. In Turkey it opened in November 2006 as Umutlar Ülkesi.

Set in 18th-century Quebec in the first years of British military occupation, the story is very loosely inspired by the “la Corriveau” affair of 1763. Le Gardeur has turned his back on bourgeois life to live in the forest among Native Americans; learning that his father is gravely ill, he returns to say goodbye but arrives too late. In town he meets the healer Marie-Loup and falls in love. Yet Père Blondeau’s relentless criticism of the young woman, rooted in his own feelings for her, puts the couple’s lives in danger.

The cast is led by Noémie Godin-Vigneau, David La Haye, Juliette Gosselin and Sébastien Huberdeau, with Gérard Depardieu, Irène Jacob, Vincent Pérez, Tim Roth, Jason Isaacs and Colm Meaney adding international names.