Synopsis

Using brush and India ink to contemporise archival World War I images, Claude Cloutier pulls us into the inner reality of his protagonist through half-real, half-surreal scenes that reveal the symbolic importance of the earth. The Trenchesis an intense cinematic experience, a powerful anti-war film that poses the question: Why? The dirty war that raged nearly one hundred years ago is no different from all those erupting today that reduce men and women to mere canon fodder.

Claude Cloutier

Claude Cloutier studied printmaking and worked as an illustrator before turning to comic strip art, mainly for Croc magazine. He has cultivated an absurdist sense of humour and has gained recognition for the meticulous execution of his drawings, which are suggestive of engravings. He joined the NFB in 1986 and directed The Persistent Peddler, an adaptation of his comic strip album La Légende des Jean-Guy. His next film was Overdose (1994), and in 1999-2000, he collaborated on the Gémeaux Award-winning Science, Please! series. In 2007 he directed Sleeping Betty, a short animated comedy that received wide public and critical acclaim and swept up 23 international awards, including a Jutra and a Genie.