Antigone

Loosely based on the Sophocles play of the same name, Antigone is promised to be a tragic film. Antigone Hipponome (Nahéma Ricci) lives in a Montreal suburb with her beloved grandmother Méni (Rachida Oussaada), her sister Ismène (Nour Belkhiria) and two brothers, Étéocle (Hakim Brahimi) and Polynice (Rawad El-Zein). The Hipponome siblings fled to Canada as children after their parents were murdered in their country of origin, where they now live as permanent residents, not citizens. After a brush with the law, Étéocle is shot dead by the local police and Polynice is arrested, facing deportation to a country he barely remembers. This incident pushes Antigone towards her fight for justice, defying the law for the love of her family. “Mon coeur me dit,” she says, “my heart tells me.”

 Antigone was chosen to represent Canada in the Oscars race, though it is a shame the film was not shortlisted. Deraspe perfectly handles the outrage that comes with acts of police brutality, with Montreal’s young people coming together to demand Antigone’s freedom. While the tragedy in Sophocles’Antigone is the staggering loss of life, the tragedy in writer and director Sophie Deraspe’s Antigone is more understated, instead, it is a betrayal. The film follows a clear tragic structure but there are certain points when characters make frustrating and unexplained choices, and the film’s ending leaves the audience hungering for more. There are also a few montages that are haphazardly edited, the sequences distract from Antigone’s sombre tone. The film takes multiple elements from classic Greek theatre as a nod to the genre. The characters at their core belong to Sophocles but Deraspe successfully contemporizes the Hipponome family to fit their Quebec setting. Their country of origin is never revealed, only suggested, making Antigone and her family blank canvases for the audience’s empathy. She asks the audience if they still stand with Antigone after damning evidence comes to light. 

Antigone is an angry film that demands to be seen. Antigone becomes a symbol of resistance and Nahéma Ricci’s portrayal of Sophocles’ heroine is revelatory. Both grandiose and profound, Ricci brings Antigone through a wide range of emotions as she struggles with Étéocle’s murder and Polynice’s deportation. She is vulnerable, she is ferocious and she will do whatever it takes to protect Polynice. The justice system dangles hopeful promises in her face if she will give up her brother: citizenship, education, freedom. Antigone’s tragedy is that despite her love for them, her family cannot live up to her impossibly high standards of loyalty. She is willing to sacrifice herself, but not everyone is.