“We’re lucky to live quietly in our house … outside it’s no good,” says Jean-François to his daughter Julyvonne in their rural Quebec house. He’s short-tempered and overprotective while she verges on simple-mindedness due to her isolation and lack of proper schooling. As community members and friends begin to ask questions about the girl, other mysterious events surround them—corpses in the snow, a missing boy and an encounter with a tiger. Combining creepy atmosphere and stark landscapes with moments of odd humor and tenderness, Curling shows the dangers of overly hermetic lives and gently proposes a way out for its compelling protagonists.


Canada 2010, 96 min. Written by Denis Côté. Photographed by Josée Deshaies. With Emmanuel Bilodeu, Philoméne Bilodeu, Roc Lafortune, Sophie Desmarais. In French with subtitles, New Yorker Films.

Members $9; seniors/students/disabled $10; general $11. Box office opens November 14: online and in person at San Francisco Film Society | New People Cinema.