Before Me, The Flood (2021 Film)

Devant Moi, Le Déluge
Worldwide theatrical release poster
Directed by	Frédéric Paquin
Written by	Isaïe Auch
Produced by	Solène Ardouin Armand Pélissier
Starring	Felix Lafléche Jocelyn Marais Tamou Zniber
Cinematography	Claudine Rigal
Edited by	Martin Cordonnier
Music by	Vivienne Brosseau
Production company	Film Gaullice
Distributed by	Film Gaullice
Release date	October 17, 2021 (Montecara)
Running time	126 minutes
Country	Gaullica
Language	Gaullican

Before Me, The Flood (Gaullican: Devant Moi, Le Déluge) is a 2021 Gaullican horror and science-fiction drama directed by Frédéric Paquin and written by Isaïe Auch. The film follows many of Paquin's preferred directorial styles including mostly filming in black and white, liberal usage of long take shots and extensive uses of point-of-view shots. It stars Felix Lafléche, Jocelyn Marais and Tamou Zniber in main roles. Whilst Lafléche and Marais have collaborated with Paquin before, it marks Zniber's first appearance in Gaullican film following her successes in Tsabaran productions.

The film follows Captain Bonhomme, one of the survivors in a post-apocalyptic Verlois as he journeys across the destroyed city, frequently beset by visions before the apocalypse, as he wrestles with a guilt that throughout the film unravels itself to the audience.

Production began as early as late 2019, but was delayed due to scheduling conflicts between the actors. Production resumed in September of 2020 through early 2021. It was almost entirely filmed in Verlois and its surrounding suburbs, though sets were also utilised. The film premiered at the 82nd Montecara Film Festival, releasing in Gaullica and several select countries the following day on the 19th of October, with a full international release on the 22nd of the same month.

Plot

Captain Bonhomme (Felix Lafléche) roams an abandoned supermarket, its shelves long since cleared. Adorned in protective gear and a gasmask, Bonhomme continues to traverse across the ruined aisles of the supermarket, quietly and with caution, passing by countless skeletons in tattered clothes, frozen in poses. One, which Bonhomme inspects with sadness, cradles an object is no longer there. After these ruminations he is able to open what were clearly barricaded doors at the back of the store to the market's storage centre. This area is relatively untouched, though it becomes clear with the familiarity the captain has with it he has been here before. As he finishes filling his bag with an assortment of canned goods, a monstrous howl echoes across the building, causing him to startle and almost drop one of the cans. Drawing a bayoneted rifle he darts to an exit, able to escape whatever creature created the howl, and stumbles into the deserted and silent city of Verlois.

The city is draped in a thin veneer of snow and Bonhomme continues his journey back to his home, navigating past a congestion of cars and what appears to be an armoured vehicle submerged in debris from a fallen building. It is here Bonhomme is subject to his first memory of the past. He sees an unidentifiable silhouette of a woman and child, the latter chastising him in whispers, as they walk out of the door of a house. Resting a hand on the bonnet of one of the cars, his consciousness fades in and out as the perception of the world before him becomes muddled with that of his memory. He sees people within each vehicle, though as he looks again notices they are all faceless, and clawing at their closed windows. As he rushes between the vehicles, aiming to escape this torrent of hands, he looks back and realises the hands are no longer there -- save for a single opened palm tapping at the car window ahead of him. He wipes frost from the window and finds a woman seemingly trapped within.

Prying the frozen car's door open, Bonhomme interrogates the woman by gun-point until she identifies herself as Sandrine Ouvrard (Tamou Zniber) from Trousseau Hospital, one of the few remaining places of human habitation in Verlois. She explains that she took refuge in the vehicle from a nearby pack of wolves, and is nursing an injured leg. Ouvrard requests Bonhomme for assistance in returning to the hospital, which is described as being on the "other side of Chrétien Tower". In this moment Bonhomme experiences another conflation of reality as the silhouetted woman he saw before replaces Ouvrard, repeating the phrase "you said you would help" until he relents, and acquiesces to her request only to see Ouvrard smiling in the place of the apparition. The two begin to travel towards their destination, the looming presence of the rusting Chrétien Tower piercing above the skyline, and the faint echoes of a familiar howl repeat behind them.

The two converse and Bonhomme learns that Ouvrard was a primary school teacher before "it all went wrong" and that she held out hope by roaming the grounds of her former school for any surviving children. As they take a rest under the bridge that once led to Verlois' 'Confluence Quarter', Ouvrard fatalistically remarks to Bonhomme that their masks have no point and only prolong suffering. His reply comes with the proffering of one of the cans of food he found. They continue to converse and Ouvrard unwittingly admits to Bonhomme that she feels guilt for the deaths of her students, boys and girls no older than four or five, because of her absence at the day of "the incident". Telling her that the circumstances were out of her control, Bonhomme laments that no one can feel true guilt for their actions on that day due to the fact that no-one knew that the world would end on it. As their conversation begins to die down Bonhomme suggests that Ouvrard catches some sleep and he'll take the first watch. As she sleeps, Bonhomme begins a patrol of their camp beneath the bridge and begins methodically creating alarm systems out of tripwires and shards of glass.