Quebecois cinema contains multitudes, genre wise, with Lea Pool’s We Will Find Happiness representing dramas from that region. One of its central characters is Reza Mohammedi (Aron Archer), who does a lot of running in his turbulent life. He leaves Iran, nearly escaping certain death after authorities arrest him after finding him at his former boyfriend’s apartment.

The film at least shows Reza being happy with ‘Saad’ (Mehdi Meskar) until Canada denies his request for refugee status. ‘Saad’s last ditch effort to keep Reza in Canada is to seduce Laurent (Alexandre Landry) a Immigration Department official. But ‘Saad’ has his own past troubles stopping him from saving Reza from certain death and making Laurent happy.

Through this, Pool reinforces the binaries between East and West, the latter being safer for those in the 2LGBT+ community. Yes, We Will Find Happiness still has the deportation part of the plot, but thankfully this film isn’t a total downer. Love is love, especially in Montreal and suburbs like Rawdon, which the film depicts as a haven for the community.

Reza, ‘Saad’, and Laurent comprise a love triangle, and We Will Find Happiness doesn’t shy away from their personal lives. Queer people, especially racialized ones, feel the pressure of respectability politics especially under the scrutiny of the straight gaze. If anything, Pool makes Laurent a bit of a dope, but otherwise she captures the messiness of queer love.

Lastly, there’s a trend in recent Quebecois films where the stories are self contained, except for We’ll Find Happiness. Quebec is at its core but it depicts five countries and languages, which showcases Pool and writer Michel Marc Bouchard’s ambitions in an epic story. Despite all those elements the film is coherent, capturing the lives of the complex cultural mosaic we call Canada.