The Heart of Madame Sabali

The Heart of Madame Sabali (French: Le Cœur de Madame Sabali) is a 2015 tragicomic feature film by Canadian director Ryan McKenna.[1] It stars Marie Brassard, Amadou & Mariam, Youssef Camara and Paul Ahmarani.

The Heart of Madame Sabali
Film poster
FrenchLe Cœur de Madame Sabali
Directed byRyan McKenna
Written byRyan McKenna
Becca Blackwood
Produced byMénaïc Raoul
Gabrielle Tougas-Fréchette
Becca Blackwood
StarringMarie Brassard
Francis La Haye
Youssef Camara
CinematographyIan Lagarde
Edited byRyan McKenna
Music byAmadou & Mariam
Tyler Fitzmaurice
Matthew Otto
Andres Vial
Production
company
Voyelles Films
Distributed byK Films Amérique
Release date
  • October 2, 2015 (2015-10-02) (VIFF)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageFrench

The film won the Focus Grand Prize for Canadian/Québec Film at the 2015 Festival de nouveau Cinéma.[2]

Plot

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Jeannette (Brassard) is a white Québécois woman with a severe heart condition living in a suburb of Montreal. After undergoing transplant surgery where she receives the heart of a Malian woman named Madame Sabali, she begins to experience flashbacks of her donor's brutal murder. Soon thereafter, Jeannette becomes friends with Madame Sabali's son Chibale (Camara), who believes she is the reincarnation of his mother.[3]

Response

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The film won the Grand Prix Focus at the 2015 Festival du nouveau cinéma, and Brassard received a Vancouver Film Critics Circle nomination for Best Actress in a Canadian Film at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2015.

References

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  1. ^ T'cha Dunlevy, "Ryan McKenna finds heart, and humour, in Le coeur de Madame Sabali". Montreal Gazette, December 3, 2015.
  2. ^ "Archives du Festival du nouveau cinéma". Festival du nouveau cinéma (in French). Retrieved 2018-05-18.
  3. ^ "Le coeur de madame Sabali". La Presse (in Canadian French). Retrieved 2018-05-18.
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