Léolo (free screening)

This screening took place on Wednesday, April 15, 2026 at 8:30 pmYukon Theatre

The escape of a boys imagination. Free admission for National Canadian Film Day! Re-mastered print!

Léolo vit dans un univers sans espoir. Il affirme venir de Sicile, là où l'espace et le rêve existent. Se sentant menacé par la folie dont sont victimes tous les siens, il se réfugie dans l'écriture et dans des amours délicieuses. Seul un dompteur de vers, amateur d'art et symbole de l'imaginaire, comprendra finalement la valeur de ses textes.

Young Léo (Léolo) Lauzon lives in Montreal's Mile End in an apartment building with his troubled and highly eccentric family, but he spends much of his time in his own imagination. Devising a strange fantasy world where his mother conceived him with an Italian tomato, Léo attempts to cope with his unsettling reality by retreating into his mind, with his meandering thoughts often drifting to his gorgeous neighbour, Bianca. This 1950s Mile End set coming of age Canadian classic is a delightful comedy full of magic realism and fantasy. Ranked number 5 on the 2015 TIFF 'Top 10 Canadian films of all time' list. 

 

After director Lauzon was killed in the northern Quebec plane crash in 1997, CBC Television, Télé-Québec and Showcase aired Night Zoo and Léolo in August, and Serge Losique announced an outdoor screening for Léolo at the Montreal World Film Festival in September. In 2014, Léolo was selected for a 2K digital restoration for a screening in the Cannes Classics selection of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The restoration was carried out by the Elephant project and Cinémathèque québécoise, and it was the first Canadian film screened for Cannes Classics.

French and Italian with English subtitles