Nô (film)

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Nô is a 1998 Canadian drama directed by Robert Lepage. It’s based on a segment from his stage play Seven Streams of the River Ota. The title nods to both the film’s structure and a blend of Quebec politics with Japanese Nō theatre.

The story is set in 1970 Montreal during the FLQ crisis and the War Measures Act. Sophie, an actress working in Osaka during Expo ’70, discovers she is pregnant. Her boyfriend Michel is an FLQ sympathizer, and Sophie must decide whether to have an abortion in Japan or return to Montreal with the baby. She also faces pressure from a fellow actor and endures a tense dinner with the Canadian ambassador and his wife. Her interpreter friend Hanako, a Hiroshima survivor, plans to move to Vancouver with her Canadian partner.

Meanwhile, back in Montreal, Michel’s two friends plot to bomb a target but end up destroying Michel’s apartment by mistake.