TIFF Interview with Director/writer Mathieu Denis for Gagne ton Ciel

GAGNE TON CIEL / COST OF HEAVEN

TIFF  2025

An interview with Director/writer Mathieu Denis.

In this captivating movie directed by maverick director Mathieu Denis, a family man, ‘Nacer Belkacem’ played by the brilliant Samir Guesmi, takes progressively darker actions in his desperate pursuit of a better life as he is facing financial hardship and craving prosperity. There is a heavy feeling as you watch this film, and you start to identify yourself with this man who is struggling to make it, at any cost. We live in very challenging and draining times right now, and a movie like this brings a fresh perspective about what to do in times of super challenges. It’s a beautiful film that needs to find a distributor and a voice so one of the many, unheard, is finally coming to the forefront for some Re-Evolution.

Q: Such a beautiful and very moving picture. How did it come together? What were you to address with this film?

Mathieu Denis: This was an idea I had a while ago. It’s inspired by an event that happened in Montreal back in 2012. My story is loosely based on this event. I think my movie is more interesting if we don’t know much about it while watching it. So, let’s hold on a lot of surprises and invite people to go and watch my movie. They are up for a great surprise and some amazing twists. It’s about this man, in 2012, who was a family man and very involved with his community. He was an everyday every man. He ended up being arrested for something extreme he had done. I was drawn to the idea of making this film to understand what pushes an ordinary man to do such an extreme act. This was the first spark. Little by little, I read lots of things about this man and this event. But then, I put this idea to rest for a while. So, it was in a folder on my computer for a while. Two years after his arrest, in 2014, this man had his trial for his acts. It took a long time to get him to a court trial. At that time, there was even more information that was revealed about his actions and how he had done it and why he had done it. Many aspects of his story made it more interesting for me. For example, there was this financial component to it. He was an engineer with a good job and a happy family. But something was missing in his life. He was obsessed with the stock exchange and the financial world. He was trying to make more money than he was making. This was interesting to me. In many ways, it’s related to the World we live in. The economic system we live in, since the late 90’s hasn’t been really challenged. I have this impression that it’s not that there are no other values, but the main value in our world is materialism. It feels like this value goes over any other value, which means that if you don’t realize material success, then it’s very hard to feel like you have fully accomplished yourself in your life. So, obviously, this is a problem because I think there are other values one has to be judged about and feel great about. However, materialistic success often supersedes all other values. It’s maintaining us in a state of constant dissatisfaction with our own lives. Because it’s always possible to have more, and it’s also always easy to look at your neighbor or your friend and look at who has the bigger car, the bigger house. And so, you feel bad about yourself and the accomplishment you have made. The man in the film had reached a ceiling that he couldn’t surpass. He felt he was not realizing the full version of himself. All of that was about the amount of money he was making. It’s a very universal theme, I think. Also, the character in this movie is an immigrant. He was of North African descent. And this was also interesting to me because it allowed me to talk about the changing social fabric of Quebec or Canada, where I’m living, and address questions of identity. And that is interesting to me. When this thing happened, because of his immigrant background, there were all sorts of speculations that were really toxic. In Canada, we see ourselves as being super welcoming, and we have so many people coming from so many different backgrounds. But the reality is that there is a lot of work to be done in that domain. It’s really during the pandemic that I was able to refocus on this film and to be able to move it forward in 2020. And then we jump in 2025 when our film is about to be launched at TIFF, and it feels like the World has never been so intense and so unstable. The climate is going crazy, and people are overworked. It’s crazy how I feel this film is of this time, even though it’s about an event that took place some 13 years ago.

Q: What does TIFF represent? Any expectations and hopes?

Mathieu: Even so, my films are art-driven. I want to believe they have an appeal for a wide audience.  It’s a complicated niche film to put out in the World, and TIFF is the perfect platform for it. So, I need to launch the film here. It brings a spotlight to the film we would not be getting into a so well-respected festival as TIFF. There are very few festivals of importance like TIFF, Venice, Cannes, or Sundance. So, we need to be here. There is an amazing audience who is so engaged and so supportive, so I can’t wait to find out about their feedback.

Q: What comes next?

Mathieu: I’m working on two projects. One depends on casting availability. Hopefully, we can film next Spring. It’s the adaptation of an article called ‘The Falling Man’.  And then  I’m working on the adaptation of a classic Quebec book: ‘Kamouraska’.