A vividly colorful film about familial dysfunction in suburban Montreal, Léa Pool’s latest charmer delves deeply into family life in the late 1960s. Elise (Marianne Fortier) is a teenager coping with a challenging adolescence amid two younger brothers off in their own worlds, a father who hides a secret and an ambitious mother (Céline Bonnier) who feels stifled in her current environment. When her mother, stunned by an overheard conversation involving her husband, leaves home for an assignment elsewhere, Elise and her siblings find creative ways to deal with their altered household. Isabelle Hébert has written a terrific script that manages to flesh out each main character with insight and humor while also including a contingent of neighborhood youngsters who are dealing with troubles of their own. The film’s serious dramatic elements—depression, sexuality, developmental disability, divorce—are contrasted with the general resilience and positive outlook of kids and the desultory activities that comprise their days. Pool is well known for the beautiful way she has told stories of female adolescence in films like Set Me Free (SFIFF 2000) and Lost and Delirious (2001); here she once again brings her compassion, insight, and terrific visual sense to this memorable story.

Written by Isabelle Hébert. Photographed by Daniel Jobin. With Gabriel Arcand, Céline Bonnier, Benjamin Chouinard, Antoine Desrochers (97 min, Seville Pictures).