A Woman, My Mother

Synopsis

Born in 1927 into a modest family, Marie, a lonely 17-year-old girl desperate for freedom moves out of the family home, leaving her parents and her six younger siblings behind. After working in Burlington as an au pair for several months, she moves to Montreal where she meets Georges, an immigrant who doesn’t speak French. During their complicated four-year relationship, Marie becomes pregnant. Refusing to abort, the young woman gives birth in secret at the crèche of the Miséricorde, leaving the baby behind and asking the nuns to promise not to reveal her identity. At the end of the 1980s, Marie's son, director Claude Demers, embarks on a meticulous quest to find her. Born under the name of Paul Jarry, the filmmaker begins by going through the registers and finds out that all the children who were born the same week were given the same surname.