Chantale is home for the Holidays and despite their fraught Relationship, her father has offered to pick her up from the airport and drive her all the way to her mother’s. As they quickly veer off their itinerary, unscheduled stops are made and the conversation takes an irrevocable turn. In La Traversée (The Journey), writer/director Ève Saint-Louis, who also portrays Chantale, paints a poignant portrait of a young woman faced with a tough decision regarding her relationship with her father.

“I wanted to question the repercussions of a conflicting relationship”

While family dynamics are regularly portrayed on screen, from different angles and various perspectives, the father/daughter relationship is rarely depicted, which is what prompted Saint-Louis to pen the screenplay. By inviting us inside the intimacy of this father/daughter reunion, she takes us on a deep dive into its effects on her main character Chantale. “I wanted to question the repercussions of a conflicting relationship and psychological abuse on a child, once she has become a young adult” she explains. Before adding that she “wished to explore anxiety and its devastating effects, but also the limits which push an individual to take action towards their own survival”, which ultimately structured her narrative.

Very quickly we get a grasp of the state of the relationship between Chantale and her father. Both are trying to make efforts to salvage a relationship that is on life support, one which is clearly only alive because half of her DNA is his. Although there is an awkwardness between them, it is mixed with a familiarity and this paradox, which works to strengthens how uncomfortable the situation is (the feeling of being like a stranger to the person who should be closest to you), is very present visually. It feels tense and cold inside that car, when it should feel warm, given the outside temperature. When they stop for food, the interaction with the server at the restaurant also fleshes out their relationship, revealing some of their issues and their individual personalities. As the short progresses, her sense of obligation becomes more and more undeniable, but it’s in those two scenes, where people traditionally are together, that they could not feel further apart and the framing reinforces that. 

Saint-Louis gives her film the perfect pacing and as the tension mounts, not only does it make the film more engaging, it also makes the relationship at the core of the film more compelling, as we witness two people who haven’t seen each other in a while and are to some extent rediscovering each other. At first, we can see that he is clearly not a warm/lovable person, and it gradually goes downhill from there despite her best efforts. The shot while she is on the phone, and he is in the frame out of focus is simply haunting, and that whole conversation is heartbreaking. 

Ultimately, the emotional strength of the film relies on her performance. Watching her taking on more and more, until she can’t bear it any any longer, is fascinating to watch and with such a subtle and nuanced performance, Saint-Louis takes her character on a tumultuous emotional journey. With very little said, we can feel the burden she carries, and the constant disappointment she experiences. Witnessing her father’s behavior is hard, but what really packs a punch is having to see her coming to terms with the fact that, for her own well being, she needs to walk away – or in this case escape. In that final moment, when the lights go off, in the house and in their relationship, she conveys the sensation that she is finally free and able to breathe. It’s a fitting end to all that has come before it.

Ahead of its online debut as a Vimeo Staff Pick Premiere, The Journey made its way around the festival circuit, kicking off with a premiere at SXSW. Saint-Louis has spent most of her career working in front of the camera, with this her directorial debut, she is already working on her next short film.