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In October 1970, the abduction of Québec labour minister Pierre LAPORTE and British diplomat James Cross, by factions of the terrorist group called the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ), prompted Prime Minister Pierre Elliott TRUDEAU to proclaim the War Measures Act, which suspended all normal civil and legal procedures and gave the government unlimited emergency powers. Overnight, Montréal was put under siege by the Canadian army, and over 450 people were apprehended and jailed without just cause. Based on interviews with actual victims of these arrests, Michel BRAULT's Les Ordres tells the story of five fictional characters who are snatched from their daily lives, interrogated, imprisoned and harassed without explanation other than the police's routine answer: "We've got orders." Not knowing why they are incarcerated, when they will be released or what is happening to their loved ones, the characters live in a constant state of mental anguish. Even their liberation after several days of imprisonment remains unexplained, thus denying them the basic solace of resolving this dreadful chapter of their lives.
Combining fiction and documentary, black and white and colour, interviews and re-enactments, Brault, who won the best director award at Cannes for his work on the film, draws a complex picture of this most traumatic event in Québec history. Hailed as a masterpiece ("the first true masterpiece of Québec cinema," said critic Robert Lévesque), Les Ordres conveys the experience of utter humiliation suffered by characters who are imprisoned without just cause and mentally and physically tortured by petty officials during their incarceration. By showing his characters torn from their homes, strip-searched, thrown into solitary confinement, deprived of proper food for days, and victimized by cruel pranks such as "fake executions," Brault relentlessly exposes the inhuman mechanisms of oppression deployed at the time. As difficult to watch as it is rewarding to analyse, Les Ordres stands out as one of the most arresting viewing experiences in Canadian film history. See also Canadian FEATURE FILM.
 Brault, Michel(courtesy Telefilm)
 Les OrdresStill from Michel Brault's film Les Ordres (courtesy Toronto International Film Festival Group).
Author
ANDRÉ LOISELLE
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