In the lead up to the 7th Canadian Film Festival in Australia (August 2012), join us as we countdown the Top 100 Canadian Films of the past 30 years. We'll be posting one film a day leading up to Canada Day on July 1st 2012. Do you agree with our staff favourites? Let us know your thoughts!

#89 - Congorama

Philippe Falardeau’s success finally broke through beyond Québec borders this year with Monsieur Lazhar, his moving Oscar-nominated drama that is wowing festival crowds around the world this year, and with good reason. Astute film lovers are already familiar with the Québec filmmaker’s talent.  

Congorama is only Falardeau’s second feature film, but if you’ve seen it, you won’t be surprised by its Cannes selection or the enthusiastic critical reception that followed. 

Michel is a Belgian inventor who undergoes an existential crisis when he learns that he was born secretly in a barn in small town in Québec and given up for adoption shortly afterward. He travels to Canada to find out more, forms an unlikely and difficult bond with the locals, and gets involved in an accident that changes his life forever. 

No synopsis can do justice to the plot twists and meta-jokes of Congorama’s incredibly clever, Charlie Kaufman-esque screenplay. Like an elaborate magic trick, it unfolds before your eyes to jaw-dropping effect. In a film set mostly in rural Québec, it manages to make room for the Brussels World Fair, meditations on Congolese post-colonial identity, and the most Australian of animals, the emu. 

While it is perhaps too convoluted to sustain the magic over its full running time, there are enough moments of sheer brilliance along the way to make watching Congorama a truly riveting experience. 

At its core is a powerful story about the complicated relationship between men and their fathers, making Congorama a thematic companion to two other great Québec films, C.R.A.Z.Y. and Barbarian Invasions. 

Olivier Gourmet, a regular with the Dardenne Brothers and a Cannes Best Actor winner, is great in the lead role, reminiscent perhaps of a Belgian Paul Giamatti. He’s our clueless but charismatic guide through this complex and decidedly weird adventure, a cautionary tale, road movie, and existential comedy rolled into one. 

-Matt Ravier 

"The film offers a unique and playful adventure seldom found in Hollywood cinema." - Bruce Kirkland, Jam! Movies