Émilie, a thirteen-year-old, has been placed in a youth protection group home. Confronted by strict new rules and the authoritarian presence of her case worker, she chooses to flee her new reality even if this means denying her own needs. All she wants is to fill her need for love even if this means returning at any cost to her egocentric mother Karine. Worse, the young girl is subjected to the bad influence of sixteen-year-old Ariel, her roommate with whom she gets into a lot of trouble. But each meeting Émilie has with Renaud, who gives her guitar lessons, are for her glimmers of hope. In this way, adolescent Émilie learns the art of resilience, progressively building confidence in herself.

First feature film for Quebec director Neegan Trudel, VACARME stands out from the rest with the strong performance of its principal actress, Rosalie Pépin, who is the film’s discovery: her naturalness and her fury are great assets. By her side, the excellent Sophie Desmarais (THE AUCTION, SARAH PREFERS TO RUN, HAPPILY MARRIED) brilliantly renders a character that does not cease to gain in intensity. This social drama, in the vein of director Nathalie St-Pierre’s CATIMINI (2012), brings a breath of fresh air to the theme of children under youth protection and rings true.