Nineteen sixty-three will be the year that changes the life of thirteen-year-old Hanna (Karine Vanasse).  It's in a darkened movie theatre in Montreal's Mile End that she first discovers Nana, played by Anna Karina in Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre sa vie.  Fascinated by this character, Hanna fins a certain similarity between Nana and one of her teachers (Nancy Huston) with whom she hopes to develop a special relationship.

Hanna is at a difficult age, attempting to become a woman in a household where she comes into conflict with parents who both love and hate one another.  Her Jewish father (Miki Manojlvic) is a man without a country, an unknown poet whose soul is tormented and who finds it difficult to express love.  Her young Catholic Quebecois mother (Pascale Bussieres) is fragile and overworked.  Fortunately she has her older brother (Alexandre Merineau) whom she adores, and her only friend, Laura (Charlotte Christeler) who attracts Hanna because she is so different and so sensual.

At the end of this trying year Hanna comes to understand the message of the sensuous and bewitching Nana. 
  
She is free to live her life as she wishes, but with this freedom comes the responsibility to live it well.

About the Director

Lea Pool stands out in the world of Quebecois film for her originality.  Critics have noted her distinctive style and praised her films for their emotional impact and magnificent beauty.  Moreover, her films have won a number of international awards.  In 1979, she wrote, shot and produced Strass Cafe, a medium length film, which won awards in four festivals.  In 1984, she wrote and directed her first feature film, La femme de l'hotel (selected at the Forum, Berlin, 1985) which was greeted enthusiastically by both critics and the public.  The film won seven awards, including the international press award from the World Film Festival, the best actress for Louise Marleau, at the Toronto Genie Awards Gala and the Chicago International Film Festival, and the prix du public (people's choice award) for fiction at the Festival des films de femmes de Creteil (France) (Creteil women's film festival). In 1986, she shot Anne Trister, which was chosen for participation in some fifteen international film festivals (including the official competition of the Berlin Film Festival), and won numerous awards among them, the prix du public at the festival des films de femmes de Creteil, the critic's  award at the Trola Festival (Portugal) , and, in Toronto, the Genie award for best cinematography.

In 1988 Lea Pool brought A corps perdu, an adaptation of Yves Navarre's novel Kurwenal, to the big screen.  Featured in 34 international festivals, the film won Premiere magazine's first prize a the Festival de la francophone de Namur (Belgium), the award of excellence a the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax, and was selected for official competition in the Venice Festival, the World Film Festival, and the Chicago International Film Festival.  Her 1991 feature film La Demoiselle Sauvage based on the short story by Corinna Bille, won the prix Super Ecran for best Canadian feature film, the award for best artistic direction (for cinematography) at the World Film Festival, as well as the award for best direction at the Festival du cinema francophone de Saint-Martin (Antilles).  Following La Demoiselle Sauvage, Lea Pool wrote and directed Mouvements du Desir in 1992-93, which was a finalist in eight categories at the Genie Awards, and was screened at the Sundance Film Festival (Utah, US).  She created a vignette entitled Rispondetemi for Montreal vu par in 1991.  Emporte-moi is her sixth feature film, selected for the official competition at the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival - winner of the Special Prize from the Ecumenical Jury, and winner of the Silver Gryphon at the 1999 Giffoni Film Festival, in Italy.  It is also the Canadian submission for this year's Academy Awards.