Solo
Sophie Dupuis
The young drag queen Simon stalks across the catwalks of Montréal’s drag scene with natural grace until he meets charming Olivier and falls in love – head over heels. Soon they become a duo on the stage and make the house shake – Boots! But his other half proves to be an insidious manipulator and sneaky poison spewer. Like the MDMA pills that he feeds Simon, Olivier slowly makes him addicted to his love and step by step estranges Simon from family, both in relatives and drag. To make matters worse, Simon's mother and greatest idol is back in town after a 15-year absence, and he wants to regain her love and approval at all costs. As a result, the young drag queen finds himself caught between an oppressively close and another clearly distant love, which only makes him feel even more lonely. Can Simon reinvent himself in all this chaos and slay as a Solo performer?
19 April 2024
22:00 h, Eldorado Filmtheater
More information
| Direction | Sophie Dupuis |
| Country | Canada |
| Year | 2023 |
| Duration | 102 min |
| Language | French, English with English subtitles |
| Production | Etienne Hansez |
| Cast | Théodore Pellerin, Félix Maritaud, Alice Moreault, Anne-Marie Cadieux |
| Camera | Mathieu Laverdière |
| Script | Sophie Dupuis |
| Editing | Marie-Pier Dupuis, Dominique Fortin, Maxim Rheault |
| Sound | Luc Boudrias |
Toronto International Film Festival 2023, Palm Springs International Film Festival 2024
Presented by:
External content is currently not displayed, because you have not consented to the use of the cookies required for this.
About the director
The French-Canadian director Sophie Dupuis, born 1986, completed six short film projects before celebrating her feature film debut Chien de garde in 2018. She received nominations for best screenplay and best director at the Canadian Screen Awards for her second narrative feature film, Souterrain (2020). Her newest movie, Solo (2023), won the national competition of the Toronto International Film Festival. During its production, Dupuis outed herself as queer.
Press reviews
„Few films understand the power of drag like Sophie Dupuis's "Solo," a radiant and intimate story of queer life and a celebration of the queer community's connection to the art of drag.
"Solo" celebrates love within the queer community, and it does so beautifully. [...] After all, as legendary drag queen RuPaul says, "If you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?"
(Barry Levitt, SlashFilm)
„Solo features wonderfully detailed sets which give depth and meaning to its characters’ lives, plus fantastic costume work both on and off the stage. It depicts the drag scene with affection and an insider’s grasp [o]f the dynamics between its various stars [...].“ (Jennie Kermode, Eye For Film)
The director about the movie
„When I started preparing for this shoot, I was presenting myself as someone who wasn't part of the LGBTQIA+ community. But I knew deep down that this statement was false. My problem wasn't an inability to come out — it was that I'd only been in relationships with cis men, so I'd enjoyed straight privilege all my life. My experiences had never been tainted by any form of homophobia or queerphobia. And I hadn't yet begun to deconstruct my heteronormative upbringing. So I didn't feel I had the right to label myself as queer. But it was in making this film that I discovered myself.“ Sophie Dupuis im Interview mit CBC Cutaways
GERMAN PREMIERE
International Feature Film Program
