Le Vendeur opens with the aftermath of a car-and-moose accident and snow is almost a character in the movie, so you know where you are from the get-go.

This is small-town Quebec, and it's getting smaller.

There's only one industry in this Lac Saint-Jean backwater, and it's been shuttered to its workers for several months. The locals can only hope and pray their pulp and paper mill might reopen.

Meanwhile, it's almost business as usual at the car dealership. Marcel Levesque (Gilbert Sicotte) is December's salesman of the month, just as he has been for the previous 11 months of the year and for all the previous months of the previous 16 years. The man is a sales genius. He knows the art of friendly persuasion inside-out.

Marcel is a widower, a genial guy who loves his work. When he isn't selling cars, he spends as much time as possible with the daughter (Nathalie Cavezzali) and little grandson he adores.

Le Vendeur occupies itself with counting the hundreds of days that the pulp and paper plant has been locked up. Marcel is vaguely aware that it's a tough slog for most of the people in his town, but he is content with life in his little corner of the world. His daughter would like him to retire, but that's the only cloud on the horizon.

In a more literal way, there are nothing but clouds on the horizon, and most of them are bringing snow. The film is awash in snow and blizzards, and there's a bit of sorrow and menace about all of it. There's more menace in the rumbling snow ploughs and the alien-looking snow removal machines, and something oppressive about the empty little town. One of the gas stations is closing. It doesn't look good for the pulp and paper factory.

Marcel has sold a fancy new truck to an unemployed local (Jean-Francois Boudreau). As the economy continues to decline, the man tries to return the vehicle. Of course, there's nothing Marcel can do about that. He sympathizes, but what can he do?

He's just a car salesman. When things get worse still, Marcel has to question everything he thinks he knows about himself.

Le Vendeur is an extraordinary first film from writer/director Sebastien Pilote, a tiny perfect gem of mood and performance that will break your heart. Pilote is not afraid of silence or a slow pace, and he carefully builds a story with unexpected emotional power. Gilbert Sicotte's performance is superb.

The movie is in French, with English subtitles. (Those subtitles are white, and sometimes when they play out against a background of white snow, you can't read them. Just FYI.) The movie was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in World Cinema at Sundance last year.

In Toronto, Le Vendeur is playing at the Cumberland Theatre.

 
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