BACK TO TADOU
Back to Tadou
A film by Jean-Nicolas Bertouille-Blais
Fiction
2025
13 min
French with English subtitles
With Ellicyane Paradis, Zoé Ntumba, Joakim Robillard
LOGLINE
Maude runs into Justin, whom she met at a party in Tadoussac ten years earlier, and asks him to reenact the scene where he was about to kiss her. With his girlfriend, Cécile, watching with approval, he agrees, letting the fantasy gently seep into reality.
SYNOPSIS
One winter afternoon, Maude rings the doorbell of Cécile and Justin's apartment with a surprising request. Maude met Justin ten years ago on the beach at Tadoussac and hasn't seen him since. Yet she asks him to reenact their meeting to find a more satisfying resolution. Faced with Maude's insistence, and under Cécile's complicit pressure, Justin agrees to participate in the strange game she proposes. The scene is reenacted down to the last detail: the glances exchanged, the words spoken, the caresses shared. Initially clumsy and mechanical, the reenactment gradually takes on a more intimate, more fluid dimension: emotions resurface, past and present intertwine, the line between staging and reality blurs, and the situation slowly transforms into a gentle settling of accounts. BACK TO TADOU deals with a healing of the self that comes through healing the other. The film can be summed up by a seemingly simple question: how far must one go to repair the past? To answer it, the characters retrace the events of that July night in 2016, each confronting their own illusions and regrets. What initially appears to be an obsessive quest for emotional justice is ultimately driven by deeper aspirations: never again missing out on the present moment and fully embracing one's desires.
Technical information
Duration: 12 minutes 44 seconds
Language: French with English subtitles
Filming: 4k - color
16:9 ratio | 5.1 sound
DCP - ProRes - H264
Filming location: Canada (Quebec)
Festivals and awards
n/a
Director
Jean-Nicolas Bertouille-Blais
Biography
Raised by three mothers and identifying as non-binary, Jean-Nicolas seeks to translate their doubts and fears onto the screen, extracting a certain universality through multi-layered situations. Jean-Nicolas favors narratives where realism blends with dreamlike imagery, exploring unsettling situations illuminated by a queer and personal perspective, which destabilize the audience while simultaneously prompting them to laugh at their own anxieties.
Filmography
(Retour à Tadou, short film 12 minutes, 2025)
(Rien N'a Changé, 2024, miniseries, 25 minutes)
(Les Fleurs de Maman, short film, 5 minutes, 2023)
(Montréal la morte, short film, 6 minutes, 2022)
Director's Note
Thank you so much for considering my film at your festival. It's an honor to have the opportunity to continue sharing a type of cinema that is dear to me and that I am passionate about.
Producer
Serge Desrosiers
Biography
Co-founder, president and executive producer of Vital Productions, Serge Desrosiers is the producer behind numerous projects, including the documentaries Mon Oncle Patof (2021), Amour Cougar : au-delà du mythe (2017) and Lise Watier : une vie à entreprendre (2014), several short films such as Pacific Bell and Ange & Ovni, and Renée Beaulieu's feature film Habiter la Maison (2025). Also a director of photography, he is a leading figure in the Quebec film industry, where he has worked for nearly 30 years.
In 2009, he co-founded Vital Productions with director and content producer Sandrine Béchade, and completed training in television and film management at HEC Montréal to add production to his already extensive career.
He brings his deep knowledge of the industry to Vital Productions' projects while continuing to work as a director of photography. Serge Desrosiers also shares his expertise as a speaker in Los Angeles and Paris, notably at the American Film Market Association and Ciné-Québec. Deeply involved in his field, he has served on the boards of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, the Sainte-Adèle Chamber of Commerce, the CLD des Pays-d'en-Haut and the Canadian Society of Cinematographers.
Filmography
LES CHRYSALIDES, documentary feature, 2026
UN RENVERSEMENT, documentary feature, 2026
TIGHT LETTUCE, feature film, 2026
L'AMOUR DU GROS BALLON, documentary feature, 2026
HERBY, documentary feature, 2026
AU PIED DU MUR, documentary feature, 2026
YEGOLÉ, MON AMOUR, short documentary, 2026
RETOUR À TADOU, short film, 2025
MARCHE AU PAYS RÉEL, documentary feature, 2025
UNE DERNIÈRE CICATRICE, documentary feature, 2025
HABITER LA MAISON, feature film, 2025
PACIFIC BELL, short film, 2022
MERRY SWISSMAS, feature film, 2022
GRO$ LOT, short film, 2022
MON ONCLE PATOF, medium-length documentary, 2021
BICHE & LOUVE, short film, 2020
THE CROWN : A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ADRIANO GOLDMAN, medium-length documentary, 2020
ANGE & OVNI, short film, 2018
AMOUR COUGAR : AU-DELÀ DU MYTHE, medium-length documentary, 2017
12 SEMAINES, short film, 2016
LISE WATIER, UNE VIE À ENTREPRENDRE, documentary feature, 2015
Team
Screenplay - Jean-Nicolas Bertouille Blais and Pierre Berlioux
Cinematography - John Cumberland
Art direction - Jeanne Derigny
Editing - Michel Robichaud
Music - Emmanuel Brie
Sound - Jérôme Boiteau via Studio Expression
Mixing - Jérôme Boiteau via Studio Expression
Photo gallery
Press contact
n/a