Antigone, from Canadian director Sophie Deraspe, is a strikingly contemporary and boldly free adaptation of Sophocles' tragedy. Here, Antigone is a gifted high school student living in Canada—but not a Canadian. She is a refugee who fled her homeland as a child after her parents were killed, bringing with her a grandmother, two brothers, and a sister. She is brilliant, well-integrated, and deeply devoted to her family. Yet like the Antigone of old, she faces an impossible choice: obey the laws of the country that has sheltered her, or answer to the moral law written in her own conscience that demands she help her family at any cost. The earthly laws demand respect for the nation that took her in; to break those laws, however righteous the cause, feels doubly grave—a kind of ingratitude toward people who showed her trust and now ask that trust to flow both ways. By reimagining Sophocles' plot (while preserving its deepest meaning), the screenplay invites modern audiences to grapple with the same dilemmas that confronted ancient spectators. And like Sophocles himself, Deraspe refuses to take sides.
Original title: Antigone
Country of origin: Canada
Year: 2019
Runtime: 109 minutes
Genre: Drama
Director: Sophie Deraspe
Cast: Nahéma Ricci, Rawad El-Zein, Antoine DesRochers