A flood, a prayer, and Grimes as a drowned saint—Winnipeg gets weird.
In the aftermath of the 1950 Winnipeg flood, Fernand floats listlessly through the sad, sunken landscape of ruin. His estranged wife prays for the drowned souls of Saint-Boniface.
Direction
Rankin's early signature: history as fever dream.
Cinematography
Waterlogged 16mm that actually looks submerged.
Score
Grimes' ethereal vocals haunt the floodwaters.
Director
Matthew Rankin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 1950 Winnipeg flood displaced 100,000 people; Rankin grew up with this trauma as regional folklore. Saint-Boniface was Winnipeg's French quarter—its drowning is literal and linguistic erasure.
Grimes recorded her vocals separately, never met the cast. Rankin edited her voice to sound like it's bubbling up through floodwater—using actual hydrophone recordings from the Red River.
CA
