In 1974, Michel Brault’s feature docudrama Les ordres (Orders) was released. Today, highlighting the 50th anniversary of this major work and Cannes award winner, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is also pleased to announce that the version of the film restored by Éléphant: mémoire du cinéma québécois will be available for distribution at festivals, film clubs and other venues.

In fact, the NFB now shares distribution rights with Éléphant on a number of works by Brault—the restored version of not just Les ordres but also Entre la mer et l’eau douce, Quand je serai parti… vous vivrez encore and the documentary series Le son des Français d’Amérique, co-directed with André Gladu.

The NFB thanks the Brault family for entrusting it with the distribution of these works. In addition, the NFB will continue to conserve and highlight Michel Brault’s seminal, NFB-produced films as well, many of which are available on nfb.ca.

Read the press release here.

Drawing on the testimonies of some 50 civilians who were detained after the War Measures Act was invoked in Quebec in October 1970, Les ordres (Orders) blurs the line between documentary and drama to tell the story of five fictional characters (three men and two women) from their arrest through to their release. The film won the award for Best Director at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival.

October 1970. Following the kidnappings of James Cross and Pierre Laporte, and in response to a wave of sympathy for the “terrorists” that surged after the televised reading and newspaper publication of the FLQ manifesto, 450 civilians were arrested, mostly in the middle of the night. Detained for varying periods, they were eventually released without charge. Drawing on their various testimonies—personal accounts that, unlike those of such well-known figures as Michel Chartrand or Pauline Julien, did not make the headlines—director Michel Brault put together the stories that make up Les ordres (Orders), a film that provides a lucid retelling of a still-topical situation and the harrowing journeys of its victims. Released in theatres on September 27, 1974, Les ordres chronicles the experience of five of these victims: a worker and his wife, a doctor, a social worker and an unemployed man.

“My film is not about the events of October 1970, but about humiliation. It goes beyond events to touch our humanity. Nothing you see in it is invented: everything is based on the stories of those who were detained during the FLQ crisis. I had to make a film for the NFB, but they turned it down. I had put 50 hours of work into it. I interviewed 40 people who were imprisoned and the subject was too hot to keep under wraps. A people can only mature when they are informed. My film strikes a universal chord in the sense that political crisis can affect any nation. And if it should happen again here, then the public is entitled to know what exactly happened and decide how they [should] react based on what they [know].” – Michel Brault, quoted in Photo-journal: tout par l’image, December 23, 1973, page 7. Collection Charles-Henri Ramond