Stéphane Lafleur's debut film charts a group of lonely people in Quebec. As he indicates with the title, Continental is a film without ever showing or firing a gun. Nor does it have any nudity or touching. Urban loneliness of Lafleur's world has more common with 90s- 2000s Asian films than any pretentious North American indies with the same theme with some quirky premises. Quietly, Lafleur paints these characters with real care and feelings. Their small connections don't feel labored or out of place. Their interactions are full of awkwardness and longing and their desires as grand as that of gods. They show their care in almost invisible ways but for us to see.
