Two Lovers and a Bear

Plot

The film follows the lives of Roman and Lucy, two people living difficult lives in a small, frozen town of Apex in the Arctic Circle. They are in love, but Lucy tells Roman that she must leave as a stalker has followed her. Roman tells her that he cannot leave and go south again, because of dark things in his own past. He tries to get her to go without him, and is even pushed to the brink of suicide. Eventually, he knows that he must go with her. Roman can talk to bears which only he it seems can hear talking back, and a polar bear who talks to him about life makes several appearances in the story. On their snowmobile journey south, they are warned of a blizzard, but seek shelter in an abandoned military base instead of going back. Lucy comes to believe that her stalker has followed them there. It is then revealed that the stalker is in her mind, her dead abusive father. Roman burns the military base in order to prove that her father is now dead forever and can no longer follow her. Seeking shelter in a snow cave, they talk about a herd of caribou that they had found frozen in a lake earlier in their journey. They compare their lives to these animals, being lead on a path and unable get off, and all being drowned. Subsequently, the bear reappears, reveals that he is God and promises that they will soon see each other again. At the end we see the lovers dead bodies being cut out of the snow and lifted away by helicopter.

Cast

Development

The film was first announced on March 18, 2015. TF1 International have acquired the worldwide distribution rights.

Filming

Filming began on March 17, 2015. Images were released from the set on May 25, 2015. The film's budget is $8.2 million. The filmmakers asked Iqaluit City Council to turn off street lights whilst they were filming because they did not want the orange hue that they gave off, instead wanting their own brighter, whiter lights. This involved manually disconnecting each lampost. Scenes with the bear were filmed in Porcupine, Ontario (northern Ontario near Timmins).

Release

The film had its world premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2016. The film went onto screen at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2016. Shortly after, 20th Century Fox and Netflix acquired U.S distribution rights to the film. The film is scheduled to be released in Canada on October 7, 2016. Executive producer Jeff Sackman told Playback Daily that Fox is targeting a Valentine’s Day 2017 release, though he offered no further details on when the film would be made available on Netflix. The U.S release date was changed to December 16, 2016 in order to qualify for the Oscars.

Critical response

Sheri Linden in the Los Angeles Times calls the film "thrillingly cinematic", however, notes that not all of the plot lines work equally, and the conversations between Roman and Lucy may be more important that the plot lines.