Quebec was rocked by the Lac-Mégantic train tragedy on July 6, 2013. Images of the explosion and massive fire in the center of the Estrie municipality, which killed 47 people, were widely circulated. The “Megantic” series, available on February 9 at Club Illigo, allows you to experience from the inside what news channels cannot show live.
This fiction tells stories of heroism, resilience and great pain in eight chapters written by Sylvain (“Confessions of a Hitman”, “Mafia Inc.”, “Louis Cyr”), for which we reveal the trailer today.
“The real heroes come forward. They did the most dangerous and most valuable things that night,” Guy said, speaking of his “toughest” project to date.
“The main theme of this series is the loss of our little everyday lives. Sometimes we have the impression that it is flat, but we are fine in the background.
Initially, the veteran screenwriter refused to tell the story of the worst train tragedy in Canadian history, when a 72-car train carrying more than seven million liters of crude oil derailed at the Musi sector-cafe, where many victims had gathered. “What ultimately inspired me to write ‘Megantic’ was the realization that we don’t know people’s stories.”
Spotlight is on a fateful night and away from politics, so then-mayor Colette Roy-Laroche was not on the show. There was no talk of rebuilding the city center, the bypass or the lawsuits.
Mr. Guy and ALSO producers Sophie Lorraine and Alexis Durant-Brault are directing the series.
“It’s a tragedy that we saw through the lens of the media, but we didn’t realize what these people went through from the inside. This is where we decided to go,” said Sophie Lorraine.
For some, the shock is palpable. According to Sylvain Guy, “Even those who withdraw from it always have sadness in mind.”
“We met people from the local center in Mégantic,” he continued. “We talked for a long time, and there are also people from this group who were at the Musée-Cafe that evening. They understand the dynamics very well, and it was very helpful for me to understand the traumas that people went through.
Each episode introduces a new victim, family, or heroic figure, and characters intersect depending on the angle or perspective of the protagonist under the magnifying glass. We also put ourselves forward in time to find out how people are… or not.
Witnesses to the tragedy wouldn’t want to relive it with fiction, would they? “It’s a series dedicated to the people of Mégantic, but it’s not necessarily for them,” said Mr. Guy said.
A program in English seems to have worked things out in Quebec. These producers “don’t need to worry about the people of Mécantique and are going to make their own version, so we said: ‘No, it has to go through us, and we match the good and bad moments of Quebec,'” said Sophie Lorraine.
“Megantic” was shot in 2021, with around 150 actors, and post-production work, including several special and sound effects, took place over a year.
“We gave ourselves the instructions, and we waited, and we worked on the series for a long time to get the instructions, to convince the people around us that it’s important if we want to translate the events correctly. The instructions to do so. So yes, there are a lot of special effects and important sets. Wagons to catch fire on the train. even bought,” added the producer, who made no secret of the international aspirations for “Megantic”.
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