The Other Side of November

The Other Side of November (French: L'autre côté de novembre) is a 2016 Quebec feature film produced, written and directed by Maryanne Zéhil. The cast includes Arsinée Khanjian, Pascale Bussières, Marc Labrèche, Raïa Haïdar, Béatrice Moukhaiber and an array of Lebanese actors and actresses. The film is a drama dealing with disappearing memory, choices that transform one’s destiny, and how societies shape people by offering them lives that are diametrically opposed to ones they could have lived elsewhere.[1]

The Other Side of November
the movie poster
FrenchL'autre côté de novembre
Directed byMaryanne Zéhil
Written byMaryanne Zehil
Produced byMaryanne Zehil
Starring
CinematographyPierre Mignot
Edited byDominique Fortin
Music byGaëtan Gravel
Patrice Dubuc
Production
company
Mia Productions
Distributed byK-Films Amérique
Release date
2016
Running time
78 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguagesFrench
Lebanese

Plot

In The Other Side of November, a woman is granted two lives: Léa (played by Arsinée Khanjian), is a bourgeois neurosurgeon living in Quebec, and Layla (also played by Arsinée Khanjian), is a humble seamstress in a small village in Lebanon. These two paths illuminate two different societies and their influence on self-realization. Time and fragmented memories are used playfully to tell the story.  The question at the heart of the film is: If someone chose a different path in life years ago, would they still be the same person today?[2][3]

Cast
  • Arsinée Khanjian as Léa/Layla
  • Pascale Bussières as Dre Louise
  • Marc Labrèche as Dr Bernard/Robert Tremblay
  • Raïa Haïdar as Young Layla
  • Béatrice Moukhaiber as Samira
  • David La Haye as Dr Michel
  • Donald Pilon as Dr Serge Labonté
  • Wafa’ Tarabay as Om Youssef
  • Nada Abou Farhat as Sett Oula
  • Walid Al Alaïli as Mayor
  • Gretta Aoun as Randa
  • Raymonde Saadé Azar as Om Rabih
  • Gisèle Boueiz as Najwa
  • Andrée Naccouzi as Soha
  • Edouard El Hashem as Youssef
  • Bshara Attallah as Young Youssef
  • Mike Ayvazian as Brahim
  • Majdi Machmouchi as Amale's father

Inspiration

Having left Lebanon in 1995 to settle in Quebec, Zehil draws from her own experience to tell this story. She quickly realized that "once you leave your country, settle in another, and integrate completely in order to rebuild your life, there is no way back." She constructs the story from this inevitability by relying on some of her most cherished themes: one’s country of birth, the country that becomes a new home, being human, the place of women in society, and the struggle between what is acquired and what is innate. Zehil uses the loss of memory—whether caused by illness or a deliberate choice—as a foundation, in an attempt to separate free will from that which is predestined, a choice or destiny she says she can no longer escape.[4]

Festivals

References
  1. www.ixmedia.com. "L'autre côté de novembre « Séquences – La revue de cinéma" (in French). Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  2. Hontebeyrie, Isabelle. "Construire sa vie". Le Journal de Montréal. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  3. André Lavoie (April 22, 2017). "L'autre côté de novembre» – Deux fois une femme". Le Devoir (in French).
  4. "À la croisée de destins rêvés". Le Droit (in French). March 24, 2017. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  5. "L' AUTRE CÔTÉ DE NOVEMBRE". Festival du nouveau cinéma (in French). Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  6. "L'autre côté de novembre". Festival cinéma du monde de Sherbrooke (in Canadian French). Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  7. "Festival du film de l'Outaouais : oeuvres québécoises au programme". Le site officiel du Gala du cinéma québécois (in French). Retrieved July 28, 2021.
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