Adrien (Le Garagiste) is a compelling story about a 50-year-old garage owner in the small town of Trois-Pistoles, Quebec, coping with kidney failure. With a supportive, loving wife by his side, he endures 12 hours of dialysis a week, hoping for the donated kidney that will give him back the quality of life he has lost, yet so richly deserves.
Renee Beaulieu’s beautiful storytelling shares with the viewer a glimpse into a life on hold. It relates the painful daily monotony of the extraordinary measures western medicine provides to keep a broken body alive. But it also asks: to what end?
Adrien works hard to keep his life together while waiting for the possibilities a new kidney offers, and even discovers new hope when the young man he hires to assist at his garage brings back a relationship thought to be long past.
Beaulieu subtly captures Adrien’s journey, mirroring his struggle with the rugged, rural life on the St. Lawrence River. Life and death are daily realities on a farm, but when it comes to one’s own life, must we do all we can to stay alive? At what cost? Should the right to die be just as valid as the right to live?
The film sparks these questions while challenging the audience to consider the relationships that tie us together. When faced with a bleak future, should we suffer the pains of endless medical intervention for the good of those we love? Is being around for them more important than our own quality of life?
This #VIWIFF2016 select film raises these timely issues in a beautifully Canadian setting, connecting the viewer to the real life emotions and challenges we may all face.
While Adrien (Le Garagiste) appears to be about an ordinary man in an ordinary town, it tells a story that will benefit the world.
Trailer (in French without subtitles – but the screening will have English subtitles!):
By Laura K. MacDonald
Adrien (Le Garagiste) screens on Wednesday, March 9th at 6:00 PM at the Vancity Theatre. Click here for more info. 
Laura K. MacDonald is a WIFTV member and a recipient of the 2016 WIFTV Actor Mentorship Program. The prolific actor blogs on http://www.laurakmacdonald.com/ . You can also follow Laura on Twitter at @lauramacmuffin .
